The object of this paper is to examine the obligations assumed by Israel, by virtue of its acceptance of the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (hereinafter: “the Court”), in accordance with Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Court's Statute, which reads as follows:
“The states parties to the present Statute may at any time declare that they recognize as compulsory ipso facto and without special agreement, in relation to any other state accepting the same obligation, the jurisdiction of the Court in all legal disputes concerning:
(a) the interpretation of a treaty;
(b) any question of international law;
(c) the existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a breach of an international obligation;
(d) the nature or extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an international obligation.”
An attempt will be made to compare Israel's declaration of acceptance of the compulsory jurisdiction with the declarations of other countries, and to analyse the reasons underlying Israel's particular declaration. The paper will not purport to consider the many problems concerned with the Court's compulsory jurisdiction. These problems, and the considerable jurisprudence of the Court dealing with them, are well known to students of international law. Indeed, probably no other aspect of the Court's jurisdiction has been the object of such rich legal literature, some of it quite recent.