International Court of Justice

Greetings ICJ Justices!! We look forward to your upcoming arrival to this years' high school Model United Nations International Court of Justice session. The legal issue before you this year is the legality of the NATO bombings of Kosovo without Security Council approval (Yugoslavia v. NATO members). My hope is that you will find this year's case a challenging deliberation opportunity.

For those unfamiliar with the MUN/ICJ format, on the first day, the ICJ morning session will commence with a general discussion of international law and the history of the ICJ by professors David Aronofsky (legal counsel for the UM) and Sally Cummins (attorney for the U.S. State Department). In the afternoon, oral arguments by the parties will ensue. Such oral argument will be done by the UM law students. Upon completion of arguments, the ICJ Justices (high school students) will have been given some questions by the law professors to ask the law students. These questions are meant to bring out the key issues that the ICJ Justices will need to be thinking about in their deliberations. After that, the Justices are free to ask any additional questions that they feel relevant to their understanding of the legal
issues to be decided. The second day will entail in-depth discussions and deliberations amongst the students, themselves. The goals of these deliberations is to analyze the issues brought before the Court both at law and in equity and to come to a final judgment on which country/countries shall be the
prevailing party.

A packet containing law review articles, pertinent cases, etc. will be mailed out to the Justices' respective schools by October 29, 2000. This packet will provide background as to the relevant law and issues to be reviewed by the Court. In the interim, it is recommended that students visit the International Court of Justice website and surf the Internet for the historical background that lead NATO to bombing of Kosovo.

Again, I would like to reiterate how much we look forward to your presence at this year's conference. If there are any questions or concerns, please contact me at your earliest convenience.

Vu Pham
Chair of the MUN/ICJ
voodoo@bigsky.net