Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ)

Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) Resources

Official Publications of the PCIJ

The official PCIJ publications are issued in series, as follows:

• Series A:Collection of Judgments (1922-1930)
• Series B:Collection of Advisory Opinions (1922-1930)
• Series A/B:Judgments, Orders and Advisory Opinions (1931-1940)–combines both Series A and BSeries C:Acts and Documents Relating to Judgments and Advisory Opinions Given by the Court (1922-1930); Pleadings, Oral Statements, and Decisions (1931-1940)
• Series D-F:Basic Documents, Annual Reports, and Indexes

Unofficial PCIJ Reporters

• World Court Reports: A Collection of the Judgments, Orders, and Opinions of the Permanent Court of International Justice (1922-1942).
• Annual Digest and Reports of Public International Law Cases
  Covers all PCIJ cases (1919-1949).

On-line and Internet Sources for the PCIJ

• On-line Sources: Neither Westlaw nor Lexis covers PCIJ decisions, documents or publications.
• Internet Sources: The Official ICJ Homepage provides a link to Articles 36P37 on which the statue of the ICJ was built. Also watch https://www.worldcourts.com which provides the history, judges list, jurisdiction, procedures, and conventions of the court. Full-text judgments are slowly being added.

Digests for ICJ and PCIJ

• Digest of the Decisions of the International Court of Justice. Provides summaries of decisions. Volume 1 covers the PCIJ; Volume 2, parts 1 and 2, covers the ICJ.
  
• Case Law of the International Court. Excerpts of decisions with topical arrangement.
  
• Commentaries on World Court Decisions (1987-1996). Peter H.F. Bekker, ed. (The Hague; Boston: Nijhoff, 1998).
• Jurisprudence of the World Court: A Case by Case Commentary by J. Verzijl. Volume 1 covers the PCIJ; Volume 2 covers the ICJ through 1965.

Specialized Collections

• Cases on the Law of the Sea. A four volume set, published between 1976 and 1984.
• European Commercial Cases. This quarterly publication began in 1978 and continues currently.
• International Labour Law Reports. An annual begun in 1978, covering through the present.

Citation Notes

The Permanent Court of International Justice published similar documents to International Court of Justice Pleadings, Oral Arguments, Documents (International Court of Justice Pleadings) in series C of Publications of the Permanent Court of International Justice (abbreviated ‘PCIJ’).

PCIJ (ser C) is organised by ‘numbers’ (for example, ‘No 2’).

A “number” sometimes contains multiple ‘parts’.

Each ‘part’ is separately paginated and contains documents relating to a separate case.

Permanent Court of International Justice

Embracing mainstream international law, this section on permanent court of international justice explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.

Resources

Further Reading

• The entry “permanent court of international justice” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press

Resources

Further Reading

• Procedure in the International Court. by Shabtai Rosenne (Nijhoff, 1983). This publication contains a commentary on the 1978 Rules. Also, the Statute, Rules of the Court, and the UN Charter are fully indexed.
• The Law and Practice of the International Court. by Shabtai Rosenne (Nijhoff, 1997). Thorough view of the Court including history, organization, jurisdiction, contentious practice and procedure, and advisory practice and procedure. There is also a concordance of the 1978, 1972, 1936/1947, and 1922/1926/1931 Rules of the Court.
• The World Court: What It Is and How It Works. Shabtai Rosenne (Nijhoff, 1989). In addition to an introduction to the Court, this useful work contains the Rules, the Statute, a list of parties to the Statute, judicial statistics, and the composition of the Court from 1922-1988.
• The International Court of Justice: Process, Practice and Procedure. D. W. Bowett and others; (London: B.I.I.C.L., 1997).
• Germain’s International Court of Justice Research Guide (https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/Finding_the_Law/Guides_by_Topic/icj.htm):
  An extensive guide to the ICJ with an annotated bibliography including monographs and articles.