The institutional features of the ICJ, as we have just seen, exercise a major influence on both the readiness of states to employ international adjudication and the ability of the Court to respond to their requests. However, the judgments which the Court hands down show the way in which it deals with disputes when given the opportunity, and are no less important. This is not the place to describe the Court's jurisprudence in detail, nor to consider its contribution to the development of international law. What is needed here is not a survey of the Court's case-law, but rather an indication of what its work reveals about the relation between the settlement of disputes and adjudication. The decision itself is a good place to start.

The Court's decision

Proving a case at the international level is primarily a matter of finding and presenting suitable documentary evidence. This material, which is relevant to both fact and law, includes treaty texts, official records of international organisations and national parliaments, diplomatic correspondence, archive material, maps, films, photographs and affidavits. The quantity of such evidence may be extremely large and as there are virtually no exclusionary rules, states can and do bring forward everything which might assist their case. Although the facility is little used, documentary evidence may be augmented by the oral testimony of witnesses and experts, or even by the Court itself visiting the scene.