Some notes on the inherent limits of the International Court of Justice in the human rights field

Abstract

At a time when the issue of human rights and concern for individuals seems to be seeping into each one of the spheres of the international law, the role of the International Court of Justice in this area, as the principal judicial body of the United Nations and as a case law reference into this legal system, seems to generate some doubts. More than once it has been blamed on it his difficulty to adapt to these new sensibilities. Against this, the subject of this paper is to analyze some of the intrinsics constraints he has to face when dea- ling with issues related to human rights, stressing the important role he has to carry out today.