The author traces the problems and developments of the International Court of Justice since its inception in 1945, when the UN charter was signed. He offers a brief history of the court and its antecedent, the Permanent Court of Justice, and the practical application of the rules and statutes of the International Court of Justice. There are individual chapters on: international disputes; the contentious jurisdiction of the ICJ; the problem of reservations to the court's jurisdiction under the optional clause; the advisory jurisdiction of the world court, a statistical evaluation of the court's work in its first fifty years; an overview of the court's jurisprdence; and problems of the court and alternative futures.