Some treaties or conventions confer jurisdiction on the Court. It has become a common international practice for international agreements - whether bilateral or multilateral - to include provisions, known as jurisdictional clauses, providing that certain categories of disputes shall or may be subject to one or more methods of pacific dispute settlement. Numerous clauses of this kind provide for recourse to conciliation, mediation or arbitration; others provide for recourse to the Court, either immediately or if other means of dispute settlement fail.
Accordingly, if a dispute of the kind envisaged in the jurisdictional clause of a treaty arises between the signatory States, they may either institute proceedings against the other party or parties by filing a unilateral application, or conclude a special agreement with that party or parties providing for the issues to be referred to the Court. The wording of such jurisdictional clauses varies from one treaty to another.
Below, in chronological order, is a list of treaties and other instruments notified to the Registry, after being registered, classified or recorded by the Secretariat of the United Nations, which contain clauses relating to the jurisdiction of the Court in contentious proceedings. Such clauses generally provide that disputes concerning the application or interpretation of the instrument may be referred to the Court for decision. For each instrument, the table indicates its date and place of signature, its title, the relevant clause and the contracting parties.
References dating back to before 1946 relate to instruments referring to the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice, which have been filed and recorded by the Secretariat of the United Nations and appear in the Treaty Series of the United Nations.
The inclusion or omission of a treaty is without prejudice to its possible application by the Court in a particular case.
1. All entries recorded throughout this Section in respect of China refer to actions taken by the authorities representing China in the United Nations at the time of those actions, and are to be understood in the light of General Assembly resolution 2758 (XXVI) of 25 October 1971.
2. The date and place given here are those of the signature of the amending protocol.
3. The dates and the places given here are those at which the amending protocol was opened for signature.
4. The date and the place given here are those of the signature of the protocol modifying and completing the Treaty, by which Article VIII of the Treaty became Article X.
5. The date and place given here are those of the signature of the revised Convention.
6. See the declaration of Egypt.
7. This Protocol relates to disputes concerning the Geneva Conventions on the Law of the Sea of 29 April 1958.
8. The date given here is that of the exchange of notes which modified the Agreement and by which Article XI became Article X.
9. The date and the place given here are those on which the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations approved the amendments to the instrument.
10. The date and the places given here are those of the exchange of letters.