The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial body of the United Nations settling disputes between states and giving advisory opinions under international law. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague. It is therefore the only principal organ of the UN which is not located in New York.

The Court is composed of 15 judges, elected for 9 years based on the outcome of simultaneous vote in the General Assembly and the Security Council.

In 2009, the Court delivered its decision in the case between Ukraine and Romania on the Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea.

Since 2017, the case on the Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Ukraine v. Russian Federation). In April 2017, the Court ordered the respondent to refrain, in the temporarily occupied Crimea, from any limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its representative institutions, including the Mejlis, and to ensure the availability of education in the Ukrainian language.

In its judgment of 8 November 2019 the Court rejected all of the preliminary objections, thus confirming its jurisdiction to consider all of Ukraine’s claims. At the moment, the case is at the merits stage.