Chapter 9. The Role of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the Progressive Development of the Law of the Sea

The term "progressive development", borrowed from the United Nations Charter, is closely related to the codification of international law, it being one of the missions of the General Assembly through the creation of the International Law Commission and the organization of international conferences. The proliferation of norms, through codification and regionalization, in many fields of international law gave birth to a multiplication of judicial organs. The law of the sea is an interesting example. Since 1996 the contribution of the ICJ to the law of the sea is being enriched and completed by the case law of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). In the case law of the International Court of Justice, environmental concerns have been treated with restraint, the Court having confined itself to limited declarations on the existence of very general obligations concerning the protection and the preservation of the environment. Keywords: International Court of Justice (ICJ); International Law Commission; ITLOS