Abstract
Several Presidents of the International Court of Justice have in the recent past expressed concern about the dangers of the proliferation of international courts and tribunals. They have particularly emphasized tribunals that cover areas traditionally part of general international law and therefore under the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. However, the United Nation Charter itself allows this possibility at Article 95, by opening the door to a plurality of international courts other than the International Court of Justice. This pluralism, even when it leads to divergent interpretations of international law, in any case entails a positive effect for its development
Member, Institut de Droit International. It is indeed a great honour and pleasure to contribute to this collection of studies in honour of Tullio Treves, an eminent international legal scholar and a distinguished representative of the Italian school of international law.
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Notes
- 1.
Charney 1998, p. 345.
- 2.
This argument was raised by Prof. Oxman at the 96th Annual Meeting of the ASIL in the Panel on “The ‘Horizontal’ Growth of International Law and Tribunals: Challenges or Opportunities?”, Washington, D.C., 16 March 2002.
- 3.
Oda 1993, pp. 13–55.
- 4.
The speeches of Presidents Schwebel and Guillaume can be found on the website of the ICJ: http://www.icj-cij.org.
- 5.
Yankov 1997, p. 365.
- 6.
Kelsen 1950, p. 477.
- 7.
Higgins 2001, p. 121.
- 8.
Ibidem, p. 122.
- 9.
Ibidem.
- 10.
Charney 1998, pp. 101–382.
- 11.
Ibidem, pp. 347, 349 and 359.
- 12.
Treves 2000, p. 74.
- 13.
Charney 1998, p. 355.
- 14.
Brownlie 1995, p. 276.
- 15.
Rosenne 1996, p. 814.
- 16.
Jennings 1998, pp. 57–59. According to Jennings, “[T]he new Law of the Sea Tribunal of Hamburg was set up partly as a result of political opposition to the Hague Court in the 1970s: nevertheless, although these is a considerable overlap with the remit of the World Court in law of the sea matters, the Hamburg Court can also deal with some important classes of cases that probably could not get before the Hague Court”. Considering the WTO, he expresses that its “subject matter and indeed the procedure, is probably better dealt with by persons with specialized knowledge or experience of the kind of practical problems involved”.
- 17.
Ibidem, p. 59 (emphasis added).
- 18.
Ibidem, pp. 62–63.
- 19.
Ibidem.
- 20.
Koskenniemi and Leino 2002, pp. 553–579.
- 21.
Ibidem, p. 553.
- 22.
Ibidem, p. 562.
- 23.
Ibidem, pp. 574–75 (footnotes omitted).
- 24.
Ibidem, p. 575 (footnotes omitted).
- 25.
Ibidem, pp. 576–77.
- 26.
Ibidem, pp. 578–79.
- 27.
Ibidem, p. 553.
- 28.
- 29.
ILC Report, p. 14.
- 30.
Treves 2000, pp. 85–86. So far, ITLOS jurisprudence shows no indication of any threat to the unity of international law.
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Caminos, H. (2013). The Growth of Specialized International Tribunals and the Fears of Fragmentation of International Law. In: Boschiero, N., Scovazzi, T., Pitea, C., Ragni, C. (eds) International Courts and the Development of International Law. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-894-1_5
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