Private Litigants and the New International Courts

Abstract

Scholars expect International Courts (ICs) with private access and compulsory jurisdiction to be more independent and effective. This article shows a trend of creating and using ICs with compulsory jurisdiction and private access, using as evidence the founding statutes and usage rates of twenty ICs created since 1945. Analyzing where and for what private actors are granted access to ICs, I find that what is driving the expansion of private access and compulsory jurisdiction is an attempt to extend the types of juridical checks one finds at the domestic level to the international governance level. While this trend will likely lead to more rights claiming by private actors, limitations on the types of cases private actors can raise combined with a lack of usage suggests that outside of Europe private right claiming potentials have yet to be exploited.