ABSTRACT
The International Court of Justice has been subjected to intense scrutiny. It had not received so much attention since the discussions relating to the reconstruction of the international jurisdiction at the end of the Permanent Court's life. The degree of international contact and awareness of international affairs in Third-World countries, largely preoccupied with questions of economics, is much lower than in the interlocked societies of Western industrialised nations. The adaptation of that theory to international law has been difficult and led to controversies between Soviet theorists such as Korovin and Pashukanis. Out of all the current soul-searching about the role and future of the International Court two main conclusions seem to emerge. The first is that for all the technical proposals for amending the statute, widening access and jurisdiction, changing election procedure. The second is that the sources of the States' " lack of confidence " in or distrust of the Court are far deeper than have been generally considered.
