The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' principal judicial body, celebrated its 80th anniversary on Thursday in The Hague, the Dutch seat of government and international law, in a ceremony attended by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. The occasion marks eight decades since the court's inaugural session on 18 April 1946 — established in the aftermath of the Second World War to give states a peaceful means of resolving their disputes. The milestone arrives, however, at a moment of acute strain, with major powers including the United States and Israel openly disregarding the court's rulings and advisory opinions.
Over its 80 years, the ICJ has ruled on roughly 170 interstate disputes and issued 30 advisory opinions, currently carrying a record 24 pending cases. The court's work falls into two categories: binding rulings in contentious cases between states, and non-binding advisory opinions requested by UN bodies such as the General Assembly and the Security Council. Despite its central role in the international legal order, only 75 of the UN's 193 member states have accepted its compulsory jurisdiction. Legal experts note that enforcement remains the court's enduring challenge — compliance ultimately depends on political will within the broader UN system.
Recent advisory opinions have put the court at the centre of the world's most contested geopolitical disputes. In July 2024, the ICJ declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories — including Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem — illegal under international law. A follow-up opinion issued in October 2025 held that Israel was "obliged to accept and facilitate" humanitarian aid into Gaza, stating that security considerations could not override humanitarian law. Neither opinion prompted compliance. Meanwhile, South Africa's genocide case against Israel, filed in 2024, remains active before the court. Separately, a landmark climate advisory opinion, initiated by the Pacific island state of Vanuatu whose existence is threatened by rising sea levels, concluded that states face binding obligations on climate action that go beyond the Paris Agreement.
Legal scholars who have worked with the court acknowledge its limitations while defending its long-term value. Dutch international law professor Nico Schrijver of Leiden University points out that the court has consistently clarified that the right to self-defence is limited to situations of armed attack — a principle enshrined in the UN Charter but frequently contested in practice. "In the case of the United States and Israel, it does not seem to work when international law is not on their side," he observed. Spanish jurist Asier Garrido Muñoz, a former ICJ legal officer, argues nonetheless that it is now "absolutely impossible" to understand modern international law without the court's body of decisions, citing foundational rulings from the 1949 Corfu Channel case to the 1980 Iran hostage crisis judgment.
The anniversary ceremony took place as other diplomatic currents swirled around The Hague. Guterres also met with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof's cabinet to discuss the UN and the Middle East. The gathering underscored the city's symbolic weight as a hub of international justice at a time when the rules-based order that institutions like the ICJ were built to uphold faces some of its stiffest tests since 1946.