ICJ Watch: You Only Have to Wait Three Years for a Preliminary Hearing

Not to beat a dead horse, but the ICJ’s announcement yesterday that it will hold public hearings in June to examine some preliminary aspects of a case filed in 2002 by the Democratic Republic of Congo against Rwanda further illustrates the slowness of the ICJ dispute resolution process. The original complaint was filed in the summer of 2002. These hearings on procedural issues (meaning that they will have to have another set of hearings if they want to reach the merits) will occur three full years after the original complaint was filed. Maybe it’s not the ICJ’s fault. But surely the legal and procedural aspects of this case (which do not involve any fact-finding) can be completed in fewer than three years???