The United Nations Charter gives the United Nations Security Council the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security and makes individual nations ultimately responsible for their own self-defense. However, the International Court of Justice is not and cannot be an alternative Security Council when the Security Council does not act. Thus, the Courts decision that it had jurisdiction in the case of Nicaragua v. United States represented a fundamental attack on the sovereignty of every State, as well as an attack on the Security Council. The Court's reasoning in its opinion on the merits of the case also contained major flaws, and the United States action in response to the Court's decisions was clearly justified. 45 footnotes.