Other International Courts
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Inter-American Court of Human Rights
This was created under the umbrella of the Organization Of American States (OAS). Its reports are found at:
- Inter-American Court of Human Rights Serie A, Fallos y opiniones/ Series A, Judgments and opinions San José, Costa Rica : Secretaria de la Corte, 1982- (JX4263.P3 In87824, 2nd Floor)
- Serie B, Memorias, argumentos orales y documentos / Series B, Pleadings, oral arguments and documents (JX4263.P3 In87825, 2nd Floor)
- Serie C--Resoluciones y sentencias/ Series C--Decisions And Judgments (JX4263.P3 In87826, 2nd Floor)
The official website of the Court is at www.corteidh.or.cr. There is a working mirror site at the University of Minnesota .
International Criminal Court
After many years of lobbying, drafting, and politicking, the Treaty establishing an International Criminal Court was signed in July, 1998. It is known as the "Rome Statute of the International Court". While the United States participated in the negotiations and drafting, we did not sign it because of serious objections within the government to certain elements of its jurisdiction and procedure. Sixty countries need to ratify it for the treaty to go into effect. There are only 14 ratifications so far.
The website developed in support of the negotiations is a model of its kind, with background documents, records of events, signatory and ratification information, etc.
The Project on International Courts and Tribunals, or PICT
This project is aimed at strengthening the notion of international tribunals and developing support for these tribunals. It has two main components: "Research and Policy Dialogue" and "Capacity Building". The webpage has links to a large number of current international tribunals.
Courts Generated by a Particular Situation
The Post-World War II Courts: Nuremburg and Tokyo Trials
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
The official site is at http://www.ictr.org/ . There is an old and out of date mirror site at http://www.un.org/ictr/ . This second site is a good example of how seemingly current material found on the web can be misleading.
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia : http://www.icty.org/
Iran-US Claims Tribunal
JX238.Ir3 1983, 2nd Floor
Domestic Courts
Many cases brought before national courts involve ascertaining international law or deciding international law issues. The research systems used for domestic law have the capacity to find material involving international law issues. Many of the yearbooks mentioned in the section on custom also have sections reviewing and digesting the international law related cases within the particular country.
In some countries there are special private reporters which select and publish that country’s international law cases. Examples of these include:
London, Stevens; New York, Oceana Publications, 1964- (JX60 B77, 2nd Floor) Note: "Confined to reports of decisions of municipal tribunals sitting within the British Isles, including, however, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council." Contents: v. 1 States as international persons.--v. 2. States as international persons (cont.) State territory.--v. 3. Jurisdiction.--v. 4. The individual in international law.--v. 5. The individual in international law: Aliens: extradition: Fugitive offenders.--v. 6. Diplomatic and consular Agents; treaties; addendum.--v. 7. Supplement, 1951-60.--v. 8. Supplement, 1960-65.--v. 9. Supplement, 1966-1970
Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., Oceana Publications, 1974-<c1986 > (JX60 P238, 2nd Floor)
Berlin : C. Heymann, 1931-<1989> (JX60 F71, 2nd Floor) Series A, sectio 1: Includes digests of decisions of Permanent Court of Arbitration, Permanent Court of International Justice, and International Court of Justice Series A, sectio 2: Includes digests of decisions of German courts relating to public international law Series B, sectio 1: Includes digest of the diplomatic correspondence of the European States Series A1 continued by:
Berlin ; New York : Springer, 1992-
(JX60 W893, 2nd Floor) The American equivalent of these is American International Law Cases (JX60 D333, 2nd Floor), but it is essentially a photo-reprint, with permission, of selected cases from the various West reporters. The last one in the Diamond Law Library is from 1992.
There has been one serious attempt to bring general international law decisions from all kinds of national courts into one publication. It is Lauterpacht’s International law reports , known earlier as Annual digest of public international law cases (1919-1932) and Annual digest and reports of public international law cases (1933-1949). It is at JX60 An7, on the 2nd Floor. While computerized law reporting from around the world has lessened the importance of this work, it has the virtue of providing translations of foreign cases, and it is a very good historical source.
Other Dispute Resolution Institutions
Many of the standard alternative dispute resolution systems are also used within the international legal processes.
The different ad hoc means of settling a dispute include Mediation, Conciliation, and Arbitration. In that order, each one represents a greater surrender of decision making authority to an outsider. A mediator works to get the parties to an agreement without any authority to force either party into any action. At the other end of the spectrum, in an arbitration the parties agree to abide by the arbitrator’s decision even if it completely against their point of view. Arbitration was especially important in the development of international law before the creation of permanent international courts, and has continued to be used in sensitive situations, like the dispute between New Zealand and France over the French Secret Service’s limpet mining of the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior" in a NZ harbor.
The decisions of arbitrators are a major source of case law within international law, and many efforts have been made to collect the reports of arbitral decisions in a public and systematic way. The only problem is that there is no formal obligation to publish the decision of an arbitration, so they can be hard to locate. The Diamond Law Library has many decisions in full as originally published by the parties. These were printed and catalogued individually. This unsystematic mode of distribution cries out for some sort of search tool, and a few have been developed.
The first major recompilation of arbitral and other decisions was:
- Moore, John Bassett, 1860-1947, ed International adjudications, ancient and modern; history and documents, together with mediatorial reports, advisory opinions, and the decisions of domestic commissions, on international claims Oxford university press, 1929-1933 JX1991 M78, 2nd Floor
Besides setting up the ICJ and establishing the registry of treaties known as the UNTS, the United Nations took on the role of reporter of arbitral decisions if the parties consented to it. The result is a 20 volume series known as:
A useful if skimpy, one volume digest of prominent arbitrations is:
Other useful starting points include:
Arbitration is also the major tool for settlement of disputes between states and large international companies, such as oil or construction companies which contract directly with states or state enterprises. These exist in the misty area between public and private international law.
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