How Many Dictionaries Do They Need in The Hague?

The article examines the use of dictionaries in the decision-making of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). While dictionary consultation has been extensively studied in domestic legal systems (especially in relation to the United States Supreme Court), it has so far received little systematic attention in international adjudication. Using corpus linguistic methods and the corpus of ICJ judgments, advisory opinions, orders, and also individual opinions of judges (comprising 2,289 texts and 14 million words), the study identifies 214 occurrences of the terms dictionary, dictionaries, dictionnaire, and dictionnaires in 109 documents related to 71 cases before the Court. The analysis explores which dictionaries are cited, by whom, and for what purposes. By combining legal and linguistic approaches, this contribution aims to provide a data-driven look at the interpretive practice of the International Court of Justice.