The Regime of Declarations of Acceptance of the Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice: Assessing the Court's Case-law in the Prism of Autonomy

This article aims at providing a general assessment of the legal regime applicable to the optional clause system, as developed in the case-law of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In particular, the said regime appears to be sui generis and autonomous, conceptually different from both the treaty regime and the one pertaining to unilateral acts. From this perspective, at least some of the inconsistencies which prima facie characterise the Court’s approach could be solved. At the same time, this essay will also shed light on some of the ambiguities that nonetheless seemingly exist in the ICJ’s case-law.