International Court of Justice (ICJ) dramatically discolored Doctors and nurses generally believed that the most serious cases, the ones who would die, were those that showed the discoloration The British army’s medical department, as part of its record keeping during the pandemic and in order to educate doctors and nurses what to look for, commissioned artists to draw pictures of soldiers who had been stricken These illustrations would show the coloration to look for Even many years after the pandemic, these portraits of ill soldiers, many of them about to die, provide an excellent idea of what they were suffering The time that the pandemic began has generally been agreed to have been in the spring of 1918 This was the first wave It was reported and treated in several U.S Army camps in the Midwest, primarily in Kansas in March Those soldiers eventually transferred to France, where it is believed they spread the disease In August sailors from Europe reached Boston and brought the infection to that city From there it traveled almost immediately to an army post in central Massachusetts, Fort Devens, where it killed 100 soldiers a day Influenza traveled very rapidly down the East Coast, following the transportation corridor created by the railroads Of the cities on the east coast of the United States, Philadelphia was the hardest hit By October influenza was so serious there that 4,600 people died in one week The second wave of the pandemic hit hardest through November 1918 Despite the efforts of doctors and nurses, there was very little that could be done One of the effects of the pandemic was that in many places in the world, especially the United States, the public health service was mobilized In the end that intervention did not significantly halt or affect the spread of the disease It did, however, lead to the practice of mobilizing all resources and taking steps by the government to try to halt the disease Bans and quarantines were put into place In many communities citizens were forced to wear face masks, or they would not be allowed on trolleys or might even be fined or jailed Reporting on the incidences of disease as well as the quality of reporting changed Influenza had never been reported as a health issue until 1918 Record keeping was more stringent and included tissue samples, some of which would be used over 70 years later to support research on the spread of influenza and reconstruct the genome of the 1918 virus Further reading: Barry, John M The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History New York: Viking, 2004; Byerly, Carol R Fever of War: The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S Army During World War I New York: New York 171 University Press, 2005; Davies, Pete Catching Cold the Devil’s Flu: The World’s Deadliest Influenza Epidemic and the Scientific Hunt for the Virus That Caused It New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2000; Duncan, Kirsty Hunting the 1918 Flu: One Scientist’s Search for a Killer Virus Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003; Johnson, Niall Britain and the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic: A Dark Epilogue London: Routledge, 2006 Robert Stacy International Court of Justice (ICJ) The International Court of Justice (ICJ), often referred to as the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) and was formally established by the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 under articles 92–96 The ICJ is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) established in 1920 by the League of Nations to address the issues raised after the cessation of World War I The ICJ is located at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, and is the only body of the UN not located at UN headquarters in New York The statute of the ICJ is similar to that of its predecessor and is the main constitutional document regulating the court The court operates in two official languages, French and English, and all judicial activity is published in both languages The ICJ as such has no criminal jurisdiction, and consequently it cannot try individuals charged with war crimes; these cases fall to national jurisdictions and to criminal tribunals established by the UN Jurisdiction is often a crucial question for the ICJ, whose key principle is consent The issue of jurisdiction is considered in only two types of ICJ cases: those pertaining to legal disputes submitted by member states on contentious issues, which often pertain to boundary disputes, and the provision of advisory opinions on specific legal questions raised Unlike contentious issues, an advisory opinion is an opportunity for a UN member or agency to address a question before the ICJ The court typically seeks out useful information pertaining to questions raised and provides a forum to present such questions A nonbinding opinion on the matter is then published to the UN member states Under article 93 of the UN Charter, all UN members fall under the court’s statute Non-UN members may also become parties to the court’s statue under article 93(2) The court comprises 15 judges elected to nineyear terms by the UN General Assembly and Security