On the Need to Regulate Competing Jurisdictions between International Courts and Tribunals
JURISDICTIONAL COMPETITION; SELECTED CASES IN INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN LAW, Europa Publishing, Groningen, October 2009
65 Pages Posted: 5 Aug 2009 Last revised: 26 Aug 2009
Date Written: June 12, 2009
Abstract
Competing jurisdiction is a relatively new but increasingly important phenomenon in international law. The ongoing proliferation of international courts and tribunals results in a multiplication of judgments and arbitral awards, which potentially conflict with each other. The case studies examined in this working paper illustrate the methods applied by various courts and tribunals to deal with competing jurisdictions. Since any formal hierarchy or coordination between the various international courts and tribunals is lacking, only soft law methods, such as the application of comity, in particular the Solange method, appears to be a useful tool to deal with the negative effects associated with competing jurisdictions.
Keywords: competing jurisdictions, international courts and tribunals, fragmentation of international law, institutionalisation of international law, proliferation of international courts and tribunals, comity, Solange method, judicial dialogue
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