Contribution of the International Court of Justice on Clarifying the Concept of Humanity

There are different approaches towards the concept of humanity in the ambit of current doctrine of international law; diversity of ideas in these approaches leads to different evaluations of statues and function of the concept of humanity in international law. Meanwhile, International Court of Justice (ICJ) makes a major contribution to clarify hidden and vague features of the concept through analyzing cases by applying legal dogmatic method. To this end, this survey concentrates on ICJ approach toward humanity with furnishing the discussion on content analysis of Corfu Channel case and Legality of Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapon case to acquire positivistic manifestation. Finally, we will indulge on ICJ’s contribution regarding the concept of humanity and its manifestations in international law, as a survey in the sources of law to equality as an international value. All efforts in this study are centered on legal potentials of the concept of humanity in international law that ICJ has strived to clarify while encountering different sets of facts.