Sources of International Law
Article 38 of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Statute enumerates the sources of "international law"...
(a) international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by contesting states;
(b) international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law;
(c) the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations;
(d) … judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations, as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law.
Research Guides (Globalex)
The Crisis in Darfur: Researching Legal Issues (Globalex)
International Arbitration between Foreign Investors and Host States (Globalex)
International Court of Justice (Peace Palace Library)
Searching through Systems - Research Guide for UN Tribunals (Globalex)
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon: An Introduction and Research Guide (Globalex)
International Courts and Tribunals
Over the past 20 years, international courts and tribunals have proliferated. Many of these courts have been established by treaties and UN resolutions. These founding treaties describe the courts’ jurisdiction, authorize the promulgation of rules of procedure and evidence, and set other ground rules such as the type of relief a court can provide. Sometimes secondary sources will explain a courts’ powers and procedures more clearly than the treaty language. Marci Hoffman & Mary Rumsey, International and Foreign Legal Research: A Coursebook, 3-8 (2d ed. 2012).
For the most party, decisions of international courts and tribunals can easily be accessed through official websites and/or print publications. Many of these bodies issue regular official publications, such as yearbooks and annual reports, containing summaries or complete decisions. Some case law is published commercially either by jurisdiction or in subject compilations. Id. at 12.
When researching decisions of international courts and tribunals, it is important to keep in mind that there is no concept of stare decisis. The decision of the court has no binding force except between the parties in respect of that particular case. However, courts often consult previous decisions.
Treatises
Assessing the Effectiveness of International Courts by Call Number: KZ6250 .S538 2014ISBN: 9780199643295Publication Date: 2014-03-30Are international courts effective tools for international governance? Do they fulfill the expectations that led to their creation and empowerment? Why do some courts appear to be more effective than others, and do so such appearances reflect reality? Could their results have been produced byother mechanisms? This book evaluates the effectiveness of international courts and tribunals by comparing their stated goals to the actual outcomes they achieve. Using a theoretical model borrowed from social science, the book assesses their effectiveness by analysing key empirical data.Its first part is dedicated to theory and methodology, laying out the effectiveness model, explaining its different components, its promise and limits, and discussing the measurement challenges it faces. The second part analyses the role that indicators such as jurisdiction, judicial independence,legitimacy, and compliance play in achieving effectiveness. Part three applies the effectiveness model to the International Court of Justice, the WTO dispute settlement mechanisms (panels and Appellate Body), the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, the European Court of HumanRights, and the European Court of Justice, reflecting the diversity of the field of international adjudication. Given the recent proliferation of international courts and tribunals, this book makes an important contribution towards understanding and measuring the value that these institutionsprovide.
A Century of International Adjudication by Call Number: KZ3410 .A44 2000ISBN: 9067041254Publication Date: 2000-12-01This study considers the ftrst century of international adjudication as a permanent fixture of the international society. By using speciftc international courts to which I was attached, as either a researcher or an employee, I was allowed to consider the various limitations to effective adjudication on the international plane. I recall the day in January of 1992 when the seeds of this manuscript were ftrst planted. I was on the fourth-floor of the Loeb Building at Carleton University leafing through a copy of Thomas Burgenthal's International Human Rights Law in a Nutshell when I came upon a chapter on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. "How could this be?", I thought. "A little known human rights court in a part of the world fraught with human rights abuses". That semester, I followed through on a course in international human rights law with Professor Maureen Davies and accepted a University Fellowship to do graduate work at Brock University (Canada) the following year. Supported in my interest by Professor James Patrick Sewell, I sought and received an Organization of American States Fellowship to spend an academic year studying the Inter American Court of Human Rights, in situ, in San Jose, Costa Rica. It is from this period that I witnessed ftrst-hand how the Inter-American Court, although similar on paper to the European Court of Human Rights, was limited in its effectiveness through the lack of ftnancing and stafftng allocated to it by American States.
Civil Society, International Courts and Compliance Bodies by Call Number: JZ4841 .C58 2005ISBN: 9067041866Publication Date: 2004-12-13Research report.
Includes index.
The Competing Jurisdictions of International Courts and Tribunals by Call Number: KZ6250 .S53 2003ISBN: 0199258570Publication Date: 2003-05-29The proliferation of new international courts and tribunals in recent years has given rise to concerns of jurisdictional overlaps between the new and existing judicial bodies. The book examines what would happen when the same dispute falls under the jurisdiction of more than one forum. This raises both theoretical and practical issues of coordinating between the various jurisdictions and identifies rules of law which ought to apply in such circumstances.
General Principles of Law as Applied by International Courts and Tribunals by Call Number: KZ6250 .C45 2006ISBN: 9780521030007Publication Date: 2006-11-02The municipal codes of well over a dozen countries expressly provide for the application of the general principles of law in the absence of specific legal provisions or of custom, and the Statute of the International Court of Justice stipulates that 'the general principles of law recognised by civilised nations' constitute one of the sources of international law to be applied by the Court; but the exact meaning and scope of this section of the Statute have always been a subject of controversy amongst international lawyers. In this printing of his classic 1953 work, Professor Bin Cheng inquires into the practical application of these principles by international courts and tribunals since the beginning of modern international arbitration with the Jay Treaty of 1794, and presents them as a coherent body of fundamental principles that in fact furnish the international legal system with its juridical basis. Citations from nearly 600 international arbitral and judicial decisions amply testify to the role of these principles in the international legal system and illustrate their application in practically every important field of international law.International Courts for the Twenty-First Century by
Call Number: KZ6165 .I57 1992ISBN: 079231784XPublication Date: 1992-09-01Building on the foundations of public international arbitration in the 19th century, the 20th century has witnessed a remarkable proliferation of courts for the international adjudication of disputes: eg the Permanent Court of International Justice, the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The Manual on International Courts and Tribunals by Call Number: KZ6250 .M36 2010ISBN: 9780199545278Publication Date: 2010-05-20The dramatic rise in the number of international courts and tribunals and the expansion of their legal powers has been one of the most significant developments in international law of the late 20th century. The emergence of an international judiciary provided international law with a stronger than ever law enforcement apparatus, and facilitated the transformation of many aspects of international relations from being power-based to being law-based. The first edition of the Manual on International Courts and Tribunals, published in 1999, was the first book to survey systematically this new institutional landscape, by describing in an accessible and uniformly structured manner the legal powers and operating procedures of all major international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. In doing so, it laid the groundwork for comparative study and research of the law and practice of international courts and tribunals - an emerging field of international legal research, which has already spurred a series of publications, conferences and academic courses. This second edition updates the first edition by describing the many legal changes that have taken place in the last decade, including important reforms in the laws and procedures of many international courts and tribunals, relevant developments in their increasingly rich jurisprudence and the creation of new judicial fora. Moreover, it assesses the overall record of these judicial bodies. The data and legal analysis offered in the book provide both practitioners and academics with an important basis of knowledge that will help them better understand the details of international adjudication and its context.
The Sword and the Scales by Call Number: KF4581 .S86 2009ISBN: 9780521407465Publication Date: 2009-09-07The Sword and the Scales is the first in-depth and comprehensive study of attitudes and behaviors of the United States toward major international courts and tribunals, including the International Courts of Justice, WTO, and NAFTA dispute settlement systems; the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; and all international criminal courts. Thirteen essays by American legal scholars map and analyze current and past patterns of promotion or opposition, use or neglect, of international judicial bodies by various branches of the United States government, suggesting a complex and deeply ambivalent relationship. The United States has been, and continues to be, not only a promoter of the various international courts and tribunals but also an active participant of the judicial system. It appears before some of the international judicial bodies frequently and supports more, both politically and financially. At the same time, it is less engaged than it could be, particularly given its strong rule of law foundations and its historical tradition of commitment to international law and its institutions.
Types of Courts
Digests
- Max Planck World Court Digest (for ICJ decisions)
- Human Rights Case Digest (for ECHR cases)
- Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals
- Print: KZ1190 .A66 1999
- Summaries of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the Permanent Court of International Justice
- Available through HeinOnline in the United Nations Law Collection
- WTO Analytical Index - Guide to WTO Law and Practice (for WTO cases)
Online Full Text Sources
- WorldLII - International Courts and Tribunals CollectionFree database of searchable text across multiple courts and tribunals.
- Westlaw NextContains the text of selective international court opinions.
- Lexis AdvanceFull text of selective international court opinions.