Editing International Court of Justice (section)

=== The Permanent Court of International Justice ===
{{main|Permanent Court of International Justice}}
The unprecedented bloodshed of the First World War led to the creation of the [[League of Nations]], established by the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] of 1919 as the first worldwide [[intergovernmental organization]] aimed at maintaining peace and collective security. Article 14 League's [[Covenant of the League of Nations|Covenant]] called for the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which would be responsible for adjudicating any international dispute submitted to it by the contesting parties, as well as to provide an advisory opinion upon any dispute or question referred to it by the League of Nations.

In December 1920, following several drafts and debates, the Assembly of the league unanimously adopted the statute of the PCIJ, which was signed and ratified the following year by a majority of members. Among other things, the new Statute resolved the contentious issues of selecting judges by providing that the judges be elected by both the council and the Assembly of the league concurrently but independently. The makeup of the PCIJ would reflect the "main forms of civilization and the principal legal systems of the world".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.icj-cij.org/en/history|title=History |website=International Court of Justice|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=2 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102143447/https://www.icj-cij.org/en/history|url-status=live}}</ref> The PCIJ would be permanently placed at the [[Peace Palace]] in The Hague, alongside Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The PCIJ represented a major innovation in international jurisprudence in several ways:

*  Unlike previous international arbitral tribunals, it was a permanent body governed by its statutory provisions and rules of procedure
* It had a permanent registry that served as a liaison with governments and international bodies
* Its proceedings were largely public, including pleadings, oral arguments, and all documentary evidence
* It was accessible to all states and could be declared by states to have compulsory jurisdiction over disputes
* The PCIJ Statute was the first to list sources of law it would draw upon, which in turn became sources of international law
* Judges were more representative of the world and its legal systems than any prior international judicial body

Unlike the ICJ, the PCIJ was not part of the league, nor were members of the league automatically a party to its Statute. The United States, which played a key role in both the second Hague Peace Conference and the Paris Peace Conference, was notably not a member of the league. However, several of its nationals served as judges of the court.

From its first session in 1922 until 1940, the PCIJ dealt with 29 interstate disputes and issued 27 advisory opinions. The court's widespread acceptance was reflected by the fact that several hundred international treaties and agreements conferred jurisdiction upon it over specified categories of disputes. In addition to helping resolve several serious international disputes, the PCIJ helped clarify several ambiguities in international law that contributed to its development.

The United States played a major role in setting up the PCIJ but never joined.<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=24445043|title=The Roosevelt Administration and the World Court Defeat, 1935|last1=Accinelli|first1=Robert D.|journal=The Historian|year=1978|volume=40|issue=3|pages=463–478|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1978.tb01903.x}}</ref> Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Roosevelt all supported membership, but did not get the two-thirds majority in the Senate required for a treaty.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.7202/030751ar | title=Peace Through Law: The United States and the World Court, 1923-1935 | year=1972 | last1=Accinelli | first1=R. D. | journal=Historical Papers | volume=7 | page=247 | s2cid=154899009 |s2cid-access=free | doi-access=free }}</ref>