The Jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice Between Utilitas Publica and Utilitas Singulorum (1947–1962)

All legal orders know of a fundamental distinction between the interests of society as a whole on the one side (utilitas publica) and the interests of its single members on the other side (utilitas singulorum). In international law this distinction coagulates around the family of norms devoted to sovereignty on the one hand and to community on the other. The case law of the ICJ is a good revelator of this divide. The present contribution seeks to trace expressions of the two layers in its jurisprudence between the years 1947 and 1962.