http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/3fd1c177aaac3d5c https://verfassungsblog.de/icj-pmo-five-prong-test/ Pick and Choose at the ICJ - An Appraisal of the Recent Provisional Measures Orders of the ICJ Foysal, Quazi Omar eng 2025-10-17 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 Article 41 of the ICJ Statute ICJ International Law Internationaler Gerichtshof | Den Haag Provisional Measures Internationaler Gerichtshof | Den Haag Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 The International Court of Justice has recently begun to deviate from its own standards. Three cases illustrate the emergence of a new approach to assessing “circumstances” required for the indication of provisional measures under Article 41 of the ICJ Statute. Traditionally, the Court has applied a structured five-prong chronological test, established in Belgium v. Senegal. In contrast, it now seems to adopt a more selective, “pick-and-choose” approach to that test. While giving the Court a certain degree of flexibility in assessing the circumstances, this approach creates risks of arbitrariness and unpredictability.