Abstract
As the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice occupies a unique place in the landscape of international institutions and jurisdictions. It is the only universal international court with general jurisdiction. The Court is thus doubly universal. Firstly, it is geographically universal, as is the international organization to which it belongs, the United Nations : access to the Court is not limited to a specific group of States, but to virtually all the States of the world, provided they meet the conditions of its statute. Secondly, the Court's substantive jurisdiction is universal : the Court has jurisdiction to settle all disputes relating to international law submitted to it ; in theory, it can deal with any question of international law. This resolutely universalist DNA of the Court raises particular questions in an international society where the trend is now towards grouping into large regional blocs, whether geographical, linguistic or ideological. Does the Court have the structure and resources to cope with the regionalization of international law ? Is there an antinomy between the universalism of which the Court is both the bearer (and symbol) and the regionalism ? How does the Court deal with regional law in its jurisprudence ? In a world where regionalism is accompanied by geopolitical upheavals, and demands for reform of international institutions, these questions, which the seminar proposes to address, touch on the very question of the legitimacy and future of the " World Court ".
