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- Introduction
- Types of Chambers
- Compulsory and Optional Chambers. Ad hoc Chambers. Functional Chambers. Ratione Materiae Chambers. Section. Committee. Single-Judge Formation. Panel
- Chambers in the Statute of the International Court of Justice
- Chambers in the Statute of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
- Chambers in the Statute of the International Criminal Court
- Chambers in the European Court of Human Rights
Introduction
When Stephen M. Schwebel1 had his paper released in April 1987, he thought that there was “a trend toward recourse to ad hoc chambers in the ICJ”:
“The International Court of Justice formed its first Chamber for dealing with a particular case in 1982; its second, in 1985; and, in 1987, its third and fourth ad hoc Chambers. This article examines what appears to be an accelerating trend toward recourse to ad hoc Chambers in the light of the provisions of the Statute and Rules of the Court and of its pertinent practice to date.”
However, from 1987 to the present day (2024), it has been shown that Schwebel’s prognosis was incorrect as:
“Despite the advantages that chambers can offer in certain circumstances, under the terms of the Statute their use remains exceptional. Their formation requires the consent of the parties. While, to date, no case has been heard by either of the first two types of chamber, by contrast six cases have been dealt with by ad hoc chambers.”
International Court of Justice – ICJ
The previous experience of the Permanent Court of International Justice is sound evidence that States do not tend to opt for chambers, either special or just ad hoc, to settle their disputes; on the contrary, they would rather have the full court (plenary session) hear their cases. In addition, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea established special chambers that are available to deal with disputes concerning specific subject matter (fisheries and marine environment); however, neither of them has ever been called upon to hear a case.
Indeed, except when on the contrary provided for in the Statute or Constitutive Act of the Court, States are entitled to have the case heard by the full Court.
Types of Chambers
There is no pattern in the International Courts´ structure, so their organization varies to a certain degree. Generally, chambers may be compulsory or optional, temporary, ad hoc or permanent (standing), and their formation may occur by the Court motu proprio or only when requested by parties, depending on their nature, characteristics, and purposes.
The capacity to form chambers as jurisdictional units of the Courts does not rely upon their members (judges), not being, therefore, a matter of simple internal regulation of the Court, but hinges on the constituent States when they are drafting the Court´s Statute or Constitutive Instrument. Accordingly, the Court can establish chambers in International Justice only when the Statute allows this formation. Thus, if chambers may exist, how they are formed, the possible influence of the parties on their formation, their competence and duration are subjects to be established, even though in general terms, by the Constitutive Instrument or Statute of the Court, which shall also determine whether referring the dispute to a chamber instead of to full court is mandatory or facultative.
The chambers can then be considered an internal division of jurisdictional service in the judicial structure of the Court. They are designed to deal with the special subject matters of the cases, proceed under the summary procedure, attend to the will or necessity upon which the disputants agree, for instance, ad hoc chambers, or, finally, serve the functional needs of the Court.
Compulsory and Optional Chambers. Ad hoc Chambers. Functional Chambers. Ratione Materiae Chambers. Section. Committee. Single-Judge Formation. Panel
A Compulsory Chamber is recognized for its mandatory jurisdiction over some cases according to a distribution as per a previously given criterion ratione materiae or functional, following the Statute and Rules of Procedure of the Court. So, a compulsory chamber means that the disputing parties must accept its competence, and they are not entitled to choose to have their case heard by the full tribunal. There is such a type of compulsory chamber in the European Court of Human Rights (Grand Chamber, Sections and Chambers) in the International Criminal (Pre-Trial Chamber and Appeals Chamber) Court and in the International Tribunal for the Law of Sea (the Seabed Disputes Chamber). There is not compulsory chambers in the International Court of Justice.
Compulsory chambers shall be formed by the Court motu proprio, independently of requests by the parties, because the Court´s Constitutive Instrument determines their existence. However, a chamber may be formed by the Court at its discretion (motu proprio) without being a compulsory chamber, as it occurs with the ICJ [Article 26 (2)],the chambers for dealing with particular categories of cases).
The Seabed Disputes Chamber envisaged in Section V, Article 187, of the 1992 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea2 is a compulsory chamber since its competence shall apply under all the situations provided in Article 187. So, under all the hypotheses established in Article 187, the Seabed Dispute Chamber shall entertain the case.
The optional chamber (facultative) is created by the court ex officio, and it is incumbent on the parties to refer their cases to it. All the ICJ´s chambers (envisaged in Articles 29 and 26) are optional, namely, the Chamber of Summary Procedure.
Due to its nature, compulsory chambers are also permanent or standing, meaning that their formation is designed to be part of the jurisdictional structure of the Court sine die. Optional Chambers, on the other pole, are not conceived to become a structural unit of the Court, being, therefore, temporary or subject to conditions. That is the case of the Environmental Chamber of the ICJ. After thirteen years of existence, it was never referred to a case. As a consequence, its maintenance became unnecessary. The chambers allowed to be formed by the ICJ´s Statute are all of them of a temporary and optional nature, so much so that the Statute points out in paragraphs (1) and (2) of Article 26 that the Chamber for dealing with particular categories of cases and with a particular case may be formed, respectively, from time to time and at any time.
The main difference between a temporary and ad hoc chamber does not stem from the temporal criterion but rather a result of the differing destination, as an “ad hoc” chamber is temporarily designed to attain a specific case, whereas a temporary chamber is created to serve no specific dispute or case.
It is convenient to point out that the Latin term “ad hoc,” which translates literally to “for the moment,” is not present in the ICJ´s Statute. However, the legal foundation for creating a chamber for the moment necessary to entertain a specific dispute is provided for in Article 26 (2) of the Court´s Statute, which means “for a particular case.”
The chamber is a unit of the jurisdictional structure of the Court and, in the Statute of the European Court of Human Rights, the chamber receives a specific definition following the Rules of Court3 – 28 March 2024, Article 1, as follows:
The term “Section” means a Chamber set up by the plenary Court for a fixed period in pursuance
of Article 25 (b) of the Convention (…)The term “Chamber” means any Chamber of seven judges constituted in pursuance of Article 26
§ 1 of the Convention (…)
The Rules of the Court still brings other types of jurisdiction unit in the framework of the Court:
The term “Committee” means a Committee of three judges set up in pursuance of Article 26 § 1
of the Convention (…) “single-judge formation” means a single judge sitting in accordance with Article
26 § 1 of the Convention (…) The “panel” of five judges referred to in Article 43 § 2 of the Convention
and in Article 2 of Protocol No. 16 thereto
Chambers in the Statute of the International Court of Justice
The Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), under the auspices of the League of Nations, is the predecessor of the current International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the United Nations framework, so the latter´s statute is a legacy from the former. Such an influence can be noticed in the ICJ´s Statute4 provisions on the formation of its chambers.
In the system of the ICJ, contrary to other standing international courts, such as the International Criminal Court, the parties to a dispute have the right to submit the case to the Plenary (full tribunal). Thus, only in light of the parties´s consent can their case be seized by a chamber instead of the tribunal´s plenary.
The ICJ´s Statute envisages two types of chambers in Articles 26 (1) and (2), respectively, the ratione materiae chambers and the so-called “ad hoc” chambers, being both of them facultative (optional), following Article 26 (3). Notice that the Latin expression “ad hoc” is not employed in the ICJ´s Statute, contrary to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea´s Statute. The Article 36 of the ITLOS´s Statute deals with ad hoc chambers. The ICJ´s Statute establishes the “chambers for dealing with particular cases” in Article 26 (2), which correspond to the ad hoc chambers, whereas Article 26 (1) provides for chambers “dealing with particular categories of cases”, which are ratione materiae Chambers.
There was only one ratione materiae chamber formed by the ICJ following Article 26 (1), the Environmental Chamber, established in 1993 and dissolved in 2006, without ever having been seized of a single case.
Chambers in the Statute of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
Chambers in the Statute of the International Criminal Court
Chambers in the European Court of Human Rights
- Schwebel, Stephen M. “Ad Hoc Chambers of the International Court of Justice.” The American Journal of International Law, vol. 81, no. 4, 1987, pp. 831–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2203413. Accessed 12 Sept. 2024. ↩︎
- See the UNCLOS below ↩︎
- See Rules of Court below. ↩︎
- It is advised to read STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE By Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade Judge of the International Court of Justice Former President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Emeritus Professor of International Law of the University of Brasília, Brazil. See it below. ↩︎
