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compensation being fixed at US$2,500 per individual and US$5,000 for families; category ‘B’
claims are those by individuals for serious personal injury or death of a spouse, children or parents,
with compensation set at US$2,500 for individuals and up to US$10,000 for families; category ‘C’
claims are those by individuals for up to US$100,000; category ‘D’ are those by individuals for over
US$100,000; category ‘E’ are those by private or public corporations; and category ‘F’ are those by
governments and international organisations. Category A and C claims were the largest in number
and category F claims the largest in amount. Over 2.6 million claims (including those of about one
million Egyptian workers) from some 100 states were submitted amounting to some US$300 billion.
Claims in categories ‘A’ to ‘C’ were generally dealt with first and paid as a priority. By June 2005
over 2.68 million claims had been resolved, about US$52.5 billion awarded and about US$19 billion
paid out.
80
After 12 years the work of the panels is over.
International Court of Justice
81
The International Court of Justice is a principal organ of the United Nations, and the Statute of the
Court is in an integral part of the UN Charter (Article 92 of the Charter). (References in this section
to articles are to those of the ICJ Statute, unless otherwise indicated.) The Court sits at the Peace
Palace at The Hague, although it can sit elsewhere, and has undertaken one site visit abroad.
82
These
days, there is much confusion among the public who, not surprisingly, confuse the ICJ with the ICC
or even the ICTY (both of which, to the delight of the Dutch, are also situated in The Hague).
Being a permanent body, the Court has certain distinct advantages over arbitral tribunals. It is
always available to hear cases, and the parties do not have to pay anything towards the costs of the
Court, apart from what they pay anyway as part of their annual contribution to the UN budget.
Although the Court has been criticised for being leisurely, it probably takes
80. See www.unog.ch/uncc/ for up-to-date reports on the Commission’s activities.
81. Most of the material mentioned in this part can be found on the Court’s excellent website, www.icj-
cij.org. See also S. Rosenne, The Law and Practice of the ICJ, 3rd edn, The Hague, 1997; Collier and
Lowe, Settlement of Disputes in International Law, Oxford, 1999, pp. 124–85; Brownlie, pp. 677–94;
Bowett et al., The International Tribunal Justice: Process, Practice and Procedure, London, 1997; R.
Jennings, ‘The Internal Judicial Practice of the ICJ’ (1988) BYIL 31; Lowe and Fitzmaurice (eds.), Fifty
Years of the International Tribunal of Justice, Cambridge, 1996.
82. See Gabcíkovo-Nagymaros Project, ICJ Reports (1997), p. 3; ILM (1998) 162; 116 ILR 1.