Short answers, pulled from the story.
The International Court of Justice, colloquially the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It settles legal disputes submitted by states and provides advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by other UN organs and specialized agencies. It is the only international court that adjudicates general disputes between countries.
The International Court of Justice is seated in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. This makes it the only principal UN organ not located in New York City. Its official working languages are English and French.
The International Court of Justice was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946. It is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice, which the League of Nations established in 1920. Its first case was submitted in May 1947 by the United Kingdom against Albania over incidents in the Corfu Channel.
The International Court of Justice is composed of fifteen judges elected by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council to nine-year terms. Elections are staggered, with five judges elected every three years. No two judges may be nationals of the same country, and the bench must represent the main forms of civilization and the principal legal systems of the world.
International Court of Justice judgments are binding on the parties and final, but the court has no formal enforcement mechanism. Enforcement is ultimately a political matter for the UN Security Council, where it is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members. After the Nicaragua case, the United States used its veto and in 1986 withdrew from the court's compulsory jurisdiction.
The International Court of Justice has jurisdiction in contentious cases only on the basis of consent. Under Article 36, that consent can come through a special agreement, a compromissory clause in a treaty, an optional clause declaration accepting jurisdiction, or transferred PCIJ jurisdiction. It can also arise from tacit consent, as in the 1949 Corfu Channel case, where a letter from Albania was held sufficient to grant jurisdiction.
On the 23rd of July 2025 the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion on state obligations regarding climate change, requested by the General Assembly. It addressed states' obligations to protect the climate system from anthropogenic emissions and the legal consequences when states cause significant harm. It was the biggest case in the court's history, with 99 countries and more than 12 intergovernmental organizations heard over two weeks in December 2024.