A big black cat sits outside as a silent witness. The library building, with a steel tunnel entrance, is tucked at the back of the Peace Palace—the larger than life, sunset orange brick building that dominates The Hague landscape, metaphorically. A search engine for the judges, this library with its endless stacks, is where the justice really begins.
For years, the library has been acquiring material—books, journals, papers, magazines—anticipating future conflict. The idea is simple: “Naive,’’ is how Jeroen Vervliet, director of the peace palace library, puts it. But like everything at The Hague and especially at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), justice is a concept that is carefully constructed. “We believe that you have to successfully anticipate the conflict that will take place in the next ten years,’’ says Jeroen. In the case of Kosovo—where the ICJ had been asked for advisory opinion in 2008, over Kosovo’s declaration of independence by Yugoslavia—the library had started slowly gathering literature over the years. “You need to deep dive into information to understand a position. It is a matter of peace or war.’’
Statue of the black cat outside the Peace Palace building | via Twitter
It is also where judges go to read. The Indian judge, Dalveer Bhandari, comes into the sunny reading room often, to sit on a table quietly and read his paper. Prior to each case, a team pulls out primary source information for the judges to prepare bibliography for the case. This helps provide judges context—an essential part of international law.
The library is at the heart of the whole idea of peace. It is here that the preliminary order that went in favour of India, would have its acquired legitimacy in international law. Context, again. In May 2017, when India filed its emergency motion, the staff of the library reached out in the stacks, to pull out everything that ever existed on the Vienna Convention for the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. The Avena or La Grande cases, or anything that ever dealt with consular access, was brought out for judges to read.
And there is plenty to read. The bright orange stacks go deep 90 metres and are 12 metres wide, assembling together 1.5 million titles. Even before the case comes up, the research team has pulled out the relevant material and compiled it so that the judges have the legal moorings to form their opinions.
The books, unlike anywhere else, are arranged according to their size—each book of the same measurement filed next to each other, so conflict resolution in Asia sits comfortably with a World War I for Dummies. Irreverent, Spanish, Arabic, ancient, fresh off the academic press, obscure and mainstream, the library has a mandate to acquire everything really that exists on international law, conflicts or conflict resolution.
And to ensure that the library, as well as the staff, are aware of the enormity of their task, there is the cat.
“She’s watching everything we do, like cats do. We don’t refer to her as the cat, we call her the witness,’’ says Jeroen. The witness keeps a watch to ensure that the principles of justice are observed. She’s keeping count and is a conscience keeper.
