Concept:

How can States settle their disputes? How have the mechanisms of dispute settlement on the international level developed historically? When can States bring other States before international courts and tribunals – and when may these bodies hear cases? How do proceedings in international fora look like? What are the effects of decisions rendered by international courts and tribunals? Do States follow them, can they be enforced, and can they have an impact even if they are not complied with?

These are some of the questions that the course will tackle. It will do so with a focus on the International Court of Justice, but other international courts and tribunals will also be considered (such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the World Trade Organisation’s Dispute Settlement Body, and inter-State as well as mixed arbitration). We will discuss these issues based on landmark cases as well as recent and current proceedings, such as the Treaty of Amity case brought by Iran against the US, the Relocation of the US Embassy case (Palestine v US), and the Chagos Advisory Opinion.

Interested students are warmly encouraged to approach the course instructors ahead of the course with any questions they may have.

Language:

The course will be held in English.

Suggested Reading:

• Collier and Lowe, The Settlement of Disputes in International Law (OUP 1999)
• Crawford, Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law (9th edn OUP 2019) 669-716
• Hernandez, International Law (OUP 2019) 279-322
• Merrills, International Dispute Settlement (6^th edn, CUP 2017)
• Pellet, ‘Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes’ in Wolfrum (ed), The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, available at: http://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e70?rskey=y9kCQe&result=7&prd=EPIL
• Rosenne, ‘International Court of Justice (ICJ)’ in Wolfrum (ed), The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, available at: http://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e34?rskey=UGE0id&result=2&prd=EPIL
• Hernandez, The International Court of Justice and the Judicial Function (OUP 2014)
• von Bogdandy and Venzke, In Whose Name? A Public Law Theory of International Adjudication (OUP 2014)
• Shany, Assessing the Effectiveness of International Courts (OUP 2016)
• Alter, The New Terrain of International Law: Courts, Politics, Rights (Princeton University Press 2014)

Further reading will be communicated to the participants ahead of each session.

Participants:

The course is open to all law students. It is coordinated with the specialisation “Internationalisierung der Rechtsordnung” (SB 7) and its curriculum. Students taking this specialisation are thus particularly encouraged to participate. Interested students from other specialisations may also attend. Exchange students are equally welcome. Basic knowledge of public international law is helpful but not mandatory.

Dates:

• 9 May 10:00-17:30
• 11 May 09:00-16:00
• 5 June 09:00-16:00
• 6 June 10:00-17:30

Course Registration:

Please register via Campus Management, module "Fremdsprachenfachkompetenz A or B".

Frequency:

The course will be held in summer semester 2020.

Examination:

All participants will prepare a short presentation. Topics will be assigned on a first come first served basis ahead of the first session. Participants who wish to obtain credits for this seminar as a “Fremdsprachenkompetenz” are required to hand in a brief written outline of their presentation.

Course instructors:

Robert Stendel (stendel@mpil.de) and Alexander Wentker (wentker@mpil.de), research fellows at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. close