The Permanent Court of International Justice, 1920-1942

§424. Provisions in the Covenant. The Statute of the Court is the primary instrument determining the sources and the scope of the Court's jurisdiction. While it is entirely independent of the Covenant of the League of Nations, account must be taken of the fact that the Statute opens with the provision in Article 1 that "a Permanent Court of International Justice is hereby established, in accordance with Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations." This indicates the intent of the framers of the Statute to follow the indications of Article 14 of the Covenant, at any rate to the extent that contrary indications were not included in the Statute itself. Article 14 envisaged a Court (1) which should be "competent to hear and determine any dispute of an international character which the parties thereto submit to it"; and (2) which might "also give an advisory opinion upon a dispute or question referred to it by the Council or by the Assembly." These provisions must be said to have been incorporated by reference into Article 1 of the Statute; but the question arises whether their effect is modified by other provisions to be found in the Statute. The provision in Article 36 of the Statute that "the jurisdiction of the Court comprises all cases which the parties refer to it" is broader than the provision in Article 14 of the Covenant that the Court "shall hear and determine any dispute of an international character which the parties thereto submit to it." It would seem that the limitation of "international character" which prevailed in the Covenant is negatived by Article 36 of the Statute, for the general should prevail over the more restrictive provision. However, "international character," as the term is used in Article 14 of the Covenant, may involve no more than the necessity of an inter-State dispute; if so, the same limitation is embodied in Article 34 of the Statute.¹ The text of the original Statute contained no express reference to advisory opinions, however, and the Court's advisory jurisdiction originally depended on

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