WCJ - Rules of Procedure
Publication date: 2001-12-12

The Rules of Procedure of the World Court of Justice.

Contents

  1. Purpose of the World Court of Justice
  2. Location
  3. Composition
  4. Jurisdiction
  5. Principles of Operation
  6. Causes of Action
  7. Parties
  8. Commencement of Actions
  9. Who can commence an Action?
  10. Stages of Action in the World Court of Justice
  11. Pleadings
  12. Statements of Fact
  13. Statements of Relevance in Support of Facts
  14. Descriptions of Items of Evidence
  15. Statements of Relevance in Support of Descriptions of Items of Evidence
  16. Burden of Proof
  17. Method of Proof
  18. Standard of Proof
  19. Claim
  20. Defence
  21. Reply
  22. Summary Judgement
  23. Default Judgement
  24. Appeal from Default Judgement
  25. Unresolved Issues
  26. Examination of Evidence
  27. Comments on Evidence
  28. Request to Clarify by the Court
  29. Draft Judgement
  30. Objections to Draft Judgement
  31. Default Final Judgement
  32. Appeal from Default Final Judgement
  33. Final Judgement

Flowchart of Stages of Action in the World Court of Justice
Flowchart of Method of Proof in the World Court of Justice

Rules of Procedure

  1. Purpose of the World Court of Justice     -to top-
    The purpose of the World Court of Justice is
    1. to provide means of resolution of disputes between individuals and groups of individuals and specifically between individuals and established national governments on the basis of truth, honesty and justice,
    2. to protect all people on earth from any form of violence and injustice inflicted on them by others and specifically by established national governments, and
    3. to set standards of objectivity, impartiality, and formal judicial reasoning for the presently existing legal systems.
  2. Location     -to top-
    The court operates exclusively through the Internet.
  3. Composition     -to top-
    1. The court is an impersonal institution,and its decisions are based solely on the formal procedure defined by these rules. For that reason the decisions of the court do not depend on any person or group of persons or any personal views, wishes or opinions. Any human intervention is restricted solely to insuring that the procedure is followed correctly.
    2. All the court decisions are given in the name of the court.
    3. There are no judges and no juries in the World Court of Justice, but any person in the world, whether he is a party to the case or not can challenge the court's decision by filing with the court Objections to the Draft Judgement.
  4. Jurisdiction     -to top-
    1. The jurisdiction of the World Court of Justice is
      1. that of a supranational court, that is, the court will consider cases involving
          (a) national governments,
          (b) international government groupings or
          (c) individuals and groups acting at the level of national governments or international groupings;
      2. that of the Court of Last Resort, that is, the court will review
          (a) cases, which have reached the top of the court hierarchy of a national or international court system, and where a party believes that an unjust court decision was given, as well as
          (b) cases which are outside of the jurisdiction of any other existing courts.
    2. The jurisdiction of the World Court of Justice is purely declarative. The court has no powers to enforce its judgments,and the value of its judgements is moral and consultative.
  5. Principles of Operation     -to top-
    1. The operation of the Court is based on a strictly formal procedure, which reduces the case to a series of single‐valued statements of fact,supported by statements of relevance and items of evidence.The other party is given opportunity to admit, challenge or ignore these statements.
    2. The issues which are not in dispute are eliminated, and the case is reduced to a number of unresolved issues. These issues are considered by the court,again following strict formal procedure.Then a draft judgement is given, to which any person in the world can object by filing Objections to the Draft Judgement.If objections are filed, the draft judgement is reviewed in the light of these objections and the final judgement is given.
    3. The court has no powers to enforce its judgements. Its decisions are published on the Internet and in print and have ‘moral’ influence. They seta standard of impartiality and objectivity, which is impossible to achieve in courts where judgements are based on judicial views and opinions, and are inevitably influenced by the prevalent state ideologies and personal views and prejudices of the judges.
  6. Causes of Action     -to top-
    1. To be entitled to begin an action in the World Court of Justice, an applicant must show that
      1. he has suffered an injustice or is about to suffer an injustice at the hands of another person and
      2. the case is within the jurisdiction of the court.
    2. Injustice within the context of these rules means interference with the person,freedom or property of another person without his consent, except for the purpose of prevention of such interference. This definition is based on the Fundamental Principles of Government by Truth Honesty and Justice used by the court for determining the rights of the parties.
    3. Person in the above definition can mean a single person or any group of people (see the rule Parties below).
    4. Interference with the person means infliction on a person of any physical or mental harm, including death.
    5. Interference with the freedom of a person means forcing a person to perform some action against his will, or preventing a person from performing an action against his will.
    6. Interference with the property means any damage, destruction, use, causation of change, taking of possession, or prevention of access or use by the owner.
    7. Forcing means any form of compulsion or inducement by use of force, deception or breach of contractual obligation.
    8. Interference with freedom of a person is not injustice, if
      1. such interference is performed by parents or guardians with respect to a child (or a person incapable to manage his affairs due to mental disability) in their care for the benefit of that child (or mentally disabled person), or
      2. such interference is performed by a legitimate government for the purpose of prevention of injustice as defined in this rule, or of general public safety and well‐being.
      Provided that such interference is limited to the necessary minimum, and general public safety and well‐being means for the benefit of the nation as a whole and not of a group within he nation at the expense of another group.
    9. Interference with property of a person is not injustice, if
      1. such interference is performed by parents or guardians with respect to the property of a child (or mentally disabled person) in their care for the benefit of that child (or mentally disabled person), or
      2. such interference is performed by a legitimate government for the purpose of prevention of injustice as defined in this rule, or of general public safety and well‐being. This includes raising of taxes to finance legitimate government activities.
      Provided that such interference is limited to the necessary minimum, and general public safety and well‐being means for the benefit of the nation as a whole and not of a group within he nation at the expense of another group.
  7. Parties     -to top-
    All cases considered by the court are always reduced to a case between two parties:the plaintiff and the defendant. Each of the parties is considered as a single legal person, whether it is a single person or a group of people, as long as in the case they act as a single entity, e.g. a person, an organisation, a nation, etc..
  8. Commencement of Actions     -to top-
    An action in the World Court of Justice is commenced by filling in the claim form at the court website www.worldjustice.org.
  9. Who can commence an Action?     -to top-
    1. An action can be commenced
      1. by any person who has a valid cause of action,and whose case is within the jurisdiction of the court, or
      2. by any person acting on behalf of a person who has a valid cause of action,and whose case is within the jurisdiction of the court.
    2. The court can consider actions of its own motion based on publicly available information, if a case raises general issues of public interest.
  10. Stages of Action in the World Court of Justice     -to top-
    Consideration of cases in the World Court of Justice consists of three distinct stages:
    1. pleadings,
    2. discovery and
    3. judicial process.
  11. Pleadings     -to top-
    1. The stage of pleadings consists of presentation to the court of statements of fact, relevance and evidence by the parties following a strict formal procedure.
    2. The pleadings are claim, defence and reply.
    3. Each pleading consists of a one or more statements of fact.
    4. Each statement of fact must be supported by one or more statements of relevance.
    5. Each statement of fact asserted in defence or reply (but not in claim) must be supported by one or more items of evidence.
    6. Statements of fact asserted in claim should not be supported by items of evidence at the time of submission of the claim. Items of evidence in support of statements of fact made in claim, must be supported by evidence at the stage of reply, if the facts are challenged by the defendant.
  12. Statements of Fact     -to top-
    1. Statement of Fact is a statement by a party to an action that a certain event occurred at a certain place at a certain moment in time, or that a certain state of affairs existed ata certain moment in time.
    2. Each statement of fact must assert one and only one fact.
    3. Each statement of fact must be relevant to the party's case.
    4. Relevant to the party's case means that if the fact is proved to be true, it's existence, singly or jointly with other facts, will logically imply truthfulness of another relevant fact, or the validity of the party's case.
    5. The party must support each statement of fact by one or more statements of relevance, stating why the party believes that the fact is relevant to the case.
    6. Statements of fact not supported by at least one statement of relevance, or obviously irrelevant, will be rejected by the court as invalid, and returned to the party with a reason for the rejection.
  13. Statements of Relevance in Support of Facts     -to top-
    Statement of Relevance is a statement by a party to an action that the truthfulness of a statement of fact, in support of which the statement of relevance is asserted, necessarily implies singly, or jointly with other statements of relevance, either that another fact asserted by the party is true, or that the party is entitled to the declaration as requested.
  14. Descriptions of Items of Evidence     -to top-
    1. Description of Item of Evidence is description of an object or document the existence of which, singly or jointly with other items of evidence, implies that a fact in support of which the item of evidence is adduced is true.
    2. All witness evidence must be in writing, but, a party, or the court, may orally examine a witness at the stage of Examination of Evidence, if they believe, that such examination may reveal that the witness gave false evidence.
    3. Each item of evidence must be relevant to the party's case.
    4. The party must support each description of item of evidence by one or more statements of relevance, stating why the party believes that the item of evidence described in the statement is relevant to the case.
    5. Descriptions of items of evidence not supported by at least one statement of relevance, or obviously irrelevant,will be rejected by the court as invalid, and returned to the party with a reason for the rejection.
  15. Statements of Relevance in Support of Descriptions of Items of Evidence     -to top-
    A statement of relevance is a statement by a party to an action that the authenticity of an item of evidence, in support of which the statement of relevance is asserted, necessarily implies singly, or jointly with other statements of relevance, that the fact in support of which the item of evidence is adduced is true.
  16. Burden of Proof     -to top-
    The burden of proof lies on the party making an affirmative statement.It is built‐in into the structure of the pleadings.
  17. Method of Proof     -to top-
    1. A party making a statement must prove that it is true in fact and that it logically supports the point in support of which it was made.
    2. A statement is considered to be proved, if is admitted by the opposing party.
    3. Failure to deny a fact or to challenge a statement of relevance is considered by the court as admittal by default.
    4. A statement of fact can be challenged
      1. by denial of knowledge, or
      2. by refutation.
    5. If a statement of fact is challenged by denial of knowledge, then the party making the statement must support that statement with evidence. This is of practical importance only for the claim,because statements made in defence and reply must be supported by evidence at the time they are presented to the court.
    6. Refutation of a statement is effected by making a statement that either shows that the refuted statement is factually not true (refutation of fact), or that it is does not logically support the point in support of which it was made (refutation of relevance).
    7. Refutations are statements of fact and must be supported by statements of relevance and items of evidence.
    8. A fact is accepted by the court as proved, if
      1. it is found by the court relevant to the point,in support of which it is asserted, and if its truth is admitted by the opposing party, or
      2. the party adduces evidence in its support, which the court accepts as relevant, and the opposing party admits or fails to refute the truthfulness of that evidence.
  18. Standard of Proof     -to top-
    1. The standard of proof is determined by the requirement that the existence of a fact or an item of evidence logically implies the validity of the point in support of which the fact is asserted or the item of evidence is adduced.
    2. The court will reject obviously invalid or irrelevant statements, but it is up to the parties to challenge the validity of statements not rejected by the court.
    3. Statements not rejected by the court and not challenged by the opposing party,will be considered by the court as admitted, and therefore proved to be true or relevant.
  19. Claim     -to top-
    1. Claim is the pleading with which the plaintiff begins his action in the World Course of Justice.
    2. The claim consists of the request to the court to make a declaration.
    3. The request must be supported by one or more statements of fact, which the plaintiff believes should entitle him to the declaration as requested by him.
    4. Each statement of fact must be supported by one or more statements of relevance.
  20. Defence     -to top-
    1. Defence is the pleading which the defendant must submit to the court within 28 days from the date of the claim.
    2. The defendant must either admit the plaintiff's claim, in which case the court will make declaration as sought by the plaintiff, or challenge the claim.
    3. If the defendant chooses to challenge the claim, he must respond to each statement of fact by admitting it, pleading ignorance and requesting proof, or by refuting the fact on the grounds of factual validity or relevance or both.
    4. If the defendant chooses to refute a statement of fact, he must assert facts in support of his refutation, supporting these statements of fact with descriptions of items of evidence in support of these facts.
    5. Each description of items of evidence must be supported by a statement of relevance stating why the item of evidence supports the fact in support of which it is adduced.
    6. All statements of facts in defence must be restricted to the issues raised in the claim. No other issues, which might exist between the parties, may be introduced in defence. If the defendant has any claims against the plaintiff, which are not directly connected to the plaintiff's claim, then the defendant should start a separate action to resolve such claims. There is no counterclaim procedure in the World Court of Justice.
  21. Reply     -to top-
    1. Reply is the pleading which the plaintiff must submit to the court within 28 days from the date of the defence.
    2. The plaintiff must either admit the defendants defence in which case the court will make declaration as sought by the defendant, or challenge the defence.
    3. If the plaintiff chooses to challenge the defence, he must respond to each statement of fact by admitting it, pleading ignorance and requesting proof, or by refuting the fact on the grounds of factual validity or relevance or both.
    4. If the plaintiff chooses to refute a statement of fact, he must assert facts in support of his refutation, supporting these statements of fact with descriptions of items of evidence in support of these facts.
    5. Each description of items of evidence must be supported by a statement of relevance stating why the item of evidence supports the fact in support of which it is adduced.
    6. All statements of facts in reply must be restricted to the issues raised in the defence. No other issues, which might exist between the parties, may be introduced in reply. If the plaintiff has any claims against the defendant, which have not been pleaded by the plaintiff in the plaintiff's claim, then the plaintiff should start a separate action against the defendant to resolve such claims.
  22. Summary Judgement     -to top-
    1. At any stage of the pleadings a party may admit the validity of the other party's case by selecting the admit option on the relevant pleading form.
    2. If a party admits the other party's case, a summary judgement will be given in favour of the party whose case is admitted.
    3. Summary Judgement is final, because it is based on a party's voluntary admittal.
  23. Default Judgement     -to top-
    If a party, having been served by the court with the other party's pleading fails to respond to that pleading within 28 days from the date of that pleading, Default Judgement will be given against that party.
  24. Appeal from Default Judgement     -to top-
    1. A party against whom a default judgement has been given, can appeal against such judgement within 28 days of its date.
    2. Appeal against a default judgement must be supported by a valid reason for failure to respond to the pleading in time.
    3. The reason for failure to respond to the pleading in time must be supported by evidence.
    4. A valid response to the pleading must be submitted with the appeal.
  25. Unresolved Issues     -to top-
    1. If after the end of the Claim‐Defence‐Reply dialog there are no issues of fact, which have not been resolved through the parties' admissions, but issues of relevance are still unresolved, the court will consider these issues and issue a draft judgement.
    2. If after the end of the Claim‐Defence‐Reply dialog there are issues of fact, which have not been resolved through the parties' admissions, and the validity of these facts can be determined by examination of the items of evidence, then the court will serve on the parties Schedule of Unresolved Issues.
    3. The Schedule of Unresolved Issues will list the unresolved issues between the parties and will contain directions on examination of evidence.
  26. Examination of Evidence     -to top-
    1. On issue by the court of the Schedule of Unresolved Issues, the parties will make their items of evidence available for inspection by the court and the opposing parties within the time limit and at the place as directed by the court.
    2. If witness evidence has been submitted and a party challenges its validity,then the witnesses will be examined by the opposing party, and by the court.
    3. Failure to produce evidence for inspection as directed by the court will result in rejection of that evidence.
    4. On completion of the examination of evidence the parties will submit to the court their comments on the items of evidence.
  27. Comments on Evidence     -to top-
    1. Comments on Evidence must be presented within 28 days of completion of the Examination of Evidence.
    2. Comments on Evidence will consist of one or more statements of fact.
    3. Each statement of fact must be supported by one or more statements of relevance.
    4. Failure to file with the court Comments on Evidence within 28 days of completion of the Examination of Evidence will be considered by the court as acceptance by the party of validity of evidence presented by the opposing party.
  28. Request to Clarify by the Court     -to top-
    1. On completion of pleadings or, if evidence was at issue, on receipt of the parties' comments on evidence,the court can issue to a party Request to Clarify Issues, at the court's discretion.
    2. Request to clarify Issues will contain one or more questions relating to the points raised by the parties in their pleadings and comments on evidence, or to items of evidence presented by the parties.
    3. Failure by a party to respond to a request to clarify issues within 28 days of the date of the request,will result in the court drawing a conclusion depending on the nature of the issues to be clarified.
  29. Draft Judgement     -to top-
    1. Having considered the unresolved issues, the comments on evidence of the parties, and the parties' responses to requests to clarify issues,the court will issue a draft judgement.
    2. This draft judgement will deal with each and every unresolved issue, which will be accepted or rejected by the court, and for each point reasons for the decision will be given.
    3. The decisions on each point will be summarised by the court and a decision on the whole case will be given with formal reasons.
    4. This draft judgement will be served on the parties, and the parties will have opportunity to raise objections to the draft judgement with 28 days of its date.
  30. Objections to Draft Judgement     -to top-
    1. Any person in the world, whether he is a party to the case or not, can file with the court Objections to the Draft Judgement.
    2. Objections to the Draft Judgement must be restricted only to the points submitted by the parties in their pleadings and contained in the draft judgement. No new issues can be introduced.
    3. The objections must relate directly to each specific point of the draft judgement,and for each objection point by point reasons must be given.
  31. Default Final Judgement     -to top-
    If a party, having been served by the court with a draft judgement fails to file objections to that judgement within 28 days from the date of that judgement,the draft judgement will become Final Judgement by default.
  32. Appeal from Default Final Judgement     -to top-
    1. A party can appeal against Default Final Judgement within 28 days of its date.
    2. Appeal against a default final judgement must be supported by a valid reason for failure to file objections to the draft judgement in time.
    3. The reason for failure to file objections to the draft judgement in time must be supported by evidence.
    4. Objections to the draft judgement must be submitted with the appeal.
  33. Final Judgement     -to top-
    1. If no objections to draft judgement were raised by the parties, the court will confirm the draft judgment and it will become the final judgement.
    2. If objections to the draft judgement had been filed by the parties, the court will consider the objections point by point and will issue the final judgement.

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