Under the terms of Article 35, paragraph 2, of the Statute, the Court is also open to other States not parties to its Statute. This Article provides that the relevant conditions shall, subject to the special provisions contained in treaties in force, be laid down by the Security Council, but in no case shall such conditions place the parties in a position of inequality before the Court.
The conditions applicable in such instances are currently set out in Resolution 9 (1946) adopted on 15 October 1946 by the Security Council (see Basic Documents on this website ), which stipulates that, in order to have access to the Court, a State not party to the Statute must previously have deposited in the Registry of the Court a declaration by which it accepts the Court’s jurisdiction, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and subject to the conditions of the Statute and Rules of Court, and undertakes to comply in good faith with the decision or decisions of the Court and to accept all the obligations of a Member of the United Nations under Article 94 of the Charter. Resolution 9 further states that such a declaration may be either particular (and relate to a dispute or disputes which have already arisen) or general (and relate to all disputes or to one or several classes of disputes which have already arisen or which may arise in the future).
In the past, particular declarations have been filed by Albania (1947) and Italy (1953), and general declarations by Cambodia (1952), Ceylon (1952), the Federal Republic of Germany (1955, 1956, 1961, 1965 and 1971), Finland (1953 and 1954), Italy (1955), Japan (1951), Laos (1952) and the Republic of Viet Nam (1952).
On 4 July 2018, Palestine deposited in the Registry of the Court a declaration that reads as follows:
“Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 9 (1946) of 15 October 1946, which provides the conditions under which the Court shall be open to States not parties to the Statute of the International Court of Justice, adopted by virtue of its powers under Article 35 (2) of the Statute of International Court of Justice, the State of Palestine hereby declares that it accepts with immediate effect the competence of the International Court of Justice for the settlement of all disputes that may arise or that have already arisen covered by Article I of the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes (1961), to which the State of Palestine acceded on 22 March 2018.
In doing so, the State of Palestine declares that it accepts all the obligations of a Member of the United Nations under Article 94 of the Charter of the United Nations.”