On October 30, the President of the International Court of Justice, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, and the President of the International Criminal Court, Judge Philippe Kirsch, addressed the United Nations General Assembly and presented the annual report for their respective courts.
Judge Higgins was able to report that the past year was the most productive year in the history of the court (see press release). Since August 2007 the court had held hearings in four cases, had rendered four substantive judgements and had made two orders on requests for the indication of provisional measures. Two more judgements are currently under preparation. The full speech held by Judge Higgins can be read here, the full report is available here.
Judge Kirsch had to paint a vaguer picture of the activities of the ICC (see press release). While he stated that the court “is respected as an independent, purely judicial institution whose decisions will be enforced”, he did call upon States to States, international organisations and civil society to continue to “co-operate with the Court and to respect and to ensure respect for the Court’s independence and its purely judicial mandate”. From a direct comparison it becomes obvious here that the ICC is at a different stage of development than the ICJ. The appeal to States is at the center of the report of the ICC, while it is not possible (yet) to report on any “substantive judgements”. The full speech of Judge Kirsch can be found here, while the report is available here.
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