Temple of Preah Vihear - Hearing of 1 March 1962

The follo1:~ing infor:i.;,tionfrom the I!er:istry of the Internaticnal
Courtof Justiceic cornmunicr-te$. to the Press:

hi~en he opened the hearing of Thursda,~, 1 l~I~-;.c1962, at
10.30 &.m., for the oral preseitatian of their arguments bg Lhc
Parties in the esse concerningthe Temple of Preah Vihenr (~ambodia
-. Thniland) (merits) , ths President of ihe XnternntionalCourt of
Justice the fol1ol;:ing sta3ement:
1

Refc;re opening the oral psaceedings in this case, 1 skould like
to addreosmyself to s day &ich is outstandin;in the hi~tsry O£
international l.aw, the 15th of Lebrw~ry 1923. On th?,+ day, forty
yezrs ago, iil this saiie3gect c::urt-r.om, the Perm,ment Court of
Ii~ternatisnnl JIAStiçe held its f'irst sittinc;, to :;hich the psesence
of the queen of the Netherlands of ~rniiient Hetherlands md foreign
public figures gave a ogecizldistinction.

While the settlement of disputes between States '027arbitraiion

hes its origins in zfitiquity, ad $:hile it rendored grsa* services and
in partic~l:::~ contributed to d efining the rule s uf iri$ernatiunal lm,
* it is in fnct unly :-riththe eatrtb1iol.irnenof thc Permanent ~ou-5' as a
body of independent judgéç rêaUj- at a1.l tiiliesto perforrn tlieir *ask
thxt the institution of internatiunnljuc t ice bucam.rnetruly pernment
and readily accessible to al1 Stnt~s dasirous nP xecoursc tz it for
the settlenentof their legnl disputes, The originnlityand
importancecf the clernent of: pexrnuncilcyr ccnnot 'oe oves-çtresaed; to

it is av:ed the fcct that the Fernianent Court of 1nter~1~tion.l Justice
becamc ,-tninstitution in themal selIse of tbc tvrrn:

It has been ssia thnt institutionalizalion implies n bclicf in
the all-importance of externalias%rmentzïitias. But if this ia to
be takan alsa tr.noSn coercion,those in the Ls3,~ue of Baticnn who
set up the Perfiiczne Cnourtrcrzlized tha,-l,t thonly nay to succeed cras
to have confidence in States. The permanent nature of the Court rnade

possible acceptanceof its compulsory j~lsdiction, but thscughthe
ingenious deviçe af the optiorial clause such nccep tanca remi,incd
freely given alÙ :.githin the limitutions set by the accepting State.
Skis solution hus b~en cxiticlsed, but it has been found ta bc the
~nly possible one in th2 present state of internationaï la\{, and ii
vas endorsed by the Statute of the nem Court. BIors thzn that, the
ideahas m~xdc progress,and in several hundred bilateral and
multilatera rcaties Stateshave ncceptcd the conpulsoryjurisdiction

of the Court for disputes arising out of the applicutionund
interpretatioa of thosc tre~ties. lrlnilethe Charter lewes to the
parties to a dispute the choice of the penceful means vith a viev to
its settlenen h, the SecurityCouncil,in the ipproFriate circms tances,
is scquired nlso to "'txkc into consideration that lvgal disputes should
as a gerzerctlrtile b~ refersed by the paties to the 1n.t;crriatio~ial
Courtof JusticeH.

In its taentyyears ai? activity,the Permanent Court delivcred
somedozens of decisions in contentious cnsss and in advisory

proceedings, aEd tkieso decisions are nuthositativ en the field of
international lav. The cataclysn; of the Sccclnd l-'crldV!ar put the
Gout Lo n difficult test, but did nùt dectroy it and, chen the
Irpz I:raover, if the United17atians decided tç replace the Perrnancnt
Court b:: a aeht Court, th35 iiizsfor sezsans ai n pr<?ctical nzture.
The Charterstatedthnt the Stntute of the nez Court i-:?,bnszd upon Baving noted the preçence in Court of the Agents of the Parties
and their Counsel and Advoca-tes, the Prssident called upon the Agent
for the Governent of Cambodia.

IIis Exceli~ncy Truong Cang addressedthe Court after vhich he

asked the Court to hear the Bonourable Dean Acheson.

At the henring tom~rron morning at loi30 a,n, the Court will hem
the next addresson behalf of the Goverment of Cmbodia,

Note for representatives of the Press with regard*
comunigu6s issueddwin~t he hearinfis in the Ca8 e co~~cerni-rg
- ---...+..-- -----
the Tem_pL-.o*a-Preah Viheax -rnbodi.- v, ~hailandF

Sincerepresentativesof the Press Gan be yresentat each
sitting and obtain at the end of each day the verbatimrecord of the
day's proceedings, the Registry does not propose to pubiish during
the hearing, the cua tomay coinmuniqués ~vhich merely isidicate the
names of the speakers and the date of the next hearing. Xowever, an

exception will be made ~vhenever the next kearing is fixed for a date
other than the following day.

The Hague, 1 T4arch 1962.