The Settlement Of International Disputes

A guide to the techniques and institutions used to solve international disputes, how they work and when they are used. This textbook looks at diplomatic (negotiation, mediation, inquiry and conciliation) and legal methods (arbitration, judicial settlement). It uses many, often topical, examples of each method in practice to place the theory of how things should work in the context of real-life situations and to help the reader understand the strengths and weaknesses of different methods when they are used. It also looks at organisations such as the International Court and the United Nations and has been fully updated to include the most recent arbitrations, developments in the WTO and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, as well as case law from the International Court of Justice.

This book offers students a clear and systematic overview of procedures for peaceful dispute settlement in international law.

The very purpose of international law is the peaceful settlement of international disputes. Over centuries, states and more recently, organizations have created substantive rules and principles, as well as affiliated procedures, in the pursuit of the peaceful settlement of disputes. This volume of the Library of Essays in International Law focuses on the classic procedures of peaceful settlement: negotiation, good offices, inquiry, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, and agencies for dispute resolution. The introduction provides a unique historic overview, explaining how the procedures first developed and changed over time. Each chapter features a seminal essay that helped create the changes described in the introduction. Being at the center of international law, dispute resolution has always been a core topic of international scholarship, this volume brings together for the first time, the pivotal writing in the field.

This publication succeeds previously published seminars of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg, Germany) dealing with evolving principles and new developments in international law. Due to the limits of traditional dispute settlement in international law and the ongoing scholarly debate on those limits, it focuses on possible innovations and functional approaches to improve international dispute settlement mechanisms. In doing so, it covers a wide variety of topics such as procedures of the WTO, advisory opinions of international courts and tribunals, the privatization of international dispute settlement, the interaction between counsels and international courts and tribunals, and the law-making function of international courts. The aim of this publication is to contribute to the cross-fertilization between these mechanisms and to offer creative impulses for the promotion of international dispute settlement.

For many years it was said that the weakness of international law was the lack of a system for the enforcement of legal obligations. Commentators pointed to the paucity of cases in the International Court and the unwillingness of States to undertake binding obligations to settle their disputes. This position has now changed beyond recognition. The number of international tribunals has increased and many of them, such as ICSID and the International Court of Justice, are busier than at any time in their history. Increasingly, the classical procedures of diplomatic protection are circumvented as corporations and individuals litigate in their own right against States in international tribunals. This book surveys the range of procedures for the settlement of international disputes, whether the disputes arise between States or between States and corporations or individuals. The first part of the book examines non-judicial procedures such as negotiation, mediation, fact-finding, as well as judicial procedures. Among the tribunals covered are ICSID, the UNCC and the Iran-US Claim Tribunal, the WTO disputes panels, ad-hoc inter-State and international commercial arbitral tribunals and the International Court of Justice. In the second part of the book the emerging principles of procedural law applied in these tribunals are discussed. Here the authors go through the entire settlement process from the agreement to submit to a settlement procedure and the constitution of the tribunal, through to the determination of the law applicable to the merits and to the procedure of the tribunal, to the review, and ultimately the recognition and enforcement of tribunal awards.

A completely updated edition of a definitive survey of the peaceful settlement of disputes - a key aspect of international law and international relations. Many methods of handling such disputes have been developed, and this book explains what the relevant techniques and institutions are, how they work and when they are used. Separate chapters cover the various diplomatic methods (negotiation, mediation, inquiry and conciliation), the legal methods (arbitration and judicial settlement), the special arrangements for disputes concerning trade or the law of the sea, and the role of the United Nations and regional organisations. The strengths and limitations of each method are illustrated with numerous examples taken from international practice. This new edition deals with many current developments, including the latest UN peace-keeping operations, the work of the WTO and of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the latest case-law of the International Court of Justice.

"Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge."--T.p.

The first part of this book deals with the general principles relating to international disputes settlement. It starts by looking at the nature of an international dispute in contemporary international law, and by discussing the principles governing the ascertainment of the existence of an international dispute. It then moves on to a consideration of the diplomatic means of an international dispute settlement. The book not only focuses on the peaceful means, but also considers other means, in particular countermeasures. A separate chapter is devoted to the International Court of Justice, enabling in-depth treatment of the issues. The book critically analyses the cases in which Australia and New Zealand have been involved, first as applicants, and then as respondents, thereby assessing the contributions made by these two countries to the development of the law relating to international disputes settlement.