Editing International Court of Justice (section)

==Activities==
[[File:Zorgvliet, 2517 The Hague, Netherlands - panoramio (13).jpg|thumb|The [[Peace Palace]] in The Hague, Netherlands, seat of the ICJ]]
Established in 1945 by the [[Charter of the United Nations|UN Charter]], the court began work in 1946 as the successor to the [[Permanent Court of International Justice]]. The [[Statute of the International Court of Justice]], similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document constituting and regulating the court.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://www.icj-cij.org/documents/index.php?p1=4&p2=2&p3=0 |title=Statute of the Court |website=International Court of Justice |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629193835/http://www.icj-cij.org/documents/index.php?p1=4&p2=2&p3=0 |archive-date=29 June 2011 |access-date= 31 August 2007}}</ref>

The court's workload covers a wide range of judicial activity. After the court ruled that the [[United States]]'s covert war against [[Nicaragua]] was in violation of international law (''[[Nicaragua v. United States]]''), the United States withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986 to accept the court's jurisdiction only on a discretionary basis.<ref>Churchill, Ward. ''A Little Matter of Genocide''. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997. Print.</ref> [[Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter]] authorizes the [[United Nations Security Council|UN Security Council]] to enforce Court rulings. However, such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the council, which the United States used in the ''Nicaragua'' case.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S%2FPV.2718|title=United Nations Official Document|website=United Nations|access-date=28 June 2017|archive-date=12 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112014513/https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S%2FPV.2718|url-status=live}}</ref>