The relationship between domestic courts and international law is usually defined by the frameworks of monism and dualism. The Engagement of Domestic Courts with International Law advances and develops a new paradigm for describing, assessing, and understanding the role of domestic courts in the international legal order. Two trends are examined in parallel in this volume. The traditional dividing lines between national and international law norms and institutions have become increasingly blurred. However, the practice of domestic courts can less and less be understood by reference to a formal approach that dictates how national legal orders receive international law. The solutions that courts reach are often based on a variety of other considerations that are not captured by the classical formal models. The aim of the book is to bring together the wide variety of types of engagement, as an important step towards a better understanding of what courts do and, eventually, towards a normative exercise of articulating principles or guidelines for the engagement of domestic courts with international law. To bring together the pragmatic approaches of domestic courts, the International Law Association Study Group on Principles on the Engagement of Domestic Courts with International Law engaged in studies with experts from a variety of backgrounds. On the basis of the Study Group's Final Report, the editors of this book continued to work with experts from different jurisdictions to collect and analyse alternate pragmatic forms of engagement from domestic courts. This publication contains the outcome of this process.

The Engagement of Domestic Courts with International Law advances and develops a new paradigm for describing, assessing, and understanding the role of domestic courts in the international legal order.

The Oxford ILDC online database, an online collection of domestic court decisions which apply international law, has been providing scholars with insights for many years. This ILDC Casebook is the perfect companion, introducing key court decisions with brief introductory and connecting texts. An ideal text for practitioners, judged, government officials, as well as for students on international law courses, the ILDC Casebook explains the theories and doctrines underlying the use by domestic courts of international law, and illustrates the key importance of domestic courts in the development of international law.

The Interpretation of International Law by Domestic Courts assesses the growing role of domestic courts in the interpretation of international law. It asks whether and if so to what extent domestic courts make use of the international rules of interpretation set forth in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Given the expectation that rules of international law are to have a uniform interpretation and application throughout the world, the practice of domestic courts is considerably more diverse. The contributions to this book analyse three key questions: first, whether international law requires a coherent interpretive approach by domestic courts. Second, whether a common or convergent methodological outlook can be found in domestic court practice. Third, whether a common interpretive approach is desirable from a normative perspective. The book identfies a considerable tension between international law's ambition for universal and uniform application and a plurality of different approaches. This tension between unity and diversity is analysed by a group of leading international lawyers from a wide range of geographical, disciplinary and methodological approaches. Drawing on domestic practice of number of jurisdictions including, among others, Colombia, France, Japan, India, Israel, Mexico, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, the book puts the interpretative practice of domestic courts in a wider context. Its chapters offer doctrinal, practical as well as theoretical perspectives on a central question for international law.

This Oxford Handbook examines the sources of international law, how the understanding of sources changed throughout the history of international law; how the main legal theories understood sources; the relationship between sources and the legitimacy of international law; and how sources differ across the various sub-areas of international law.

What is the relationship between politics and international law? Inspired by comparative politics and socio-legal studies, this Research Handbook develops a novel framework for comparative analysis of politics and international law at different stages of governance and in different governance systems. It applies the framework in a wide range of fields—from human rights and environmental standards, to cyber conflict and intellectual property—to show how the relationship between politics and international law varies depending on the sites where it unfolds.

Winner of the Walther Hug Prize 2021. Read more. In Domestic Courts and the Interpretation of International Law, Odile Ammann examines how domestic judges do and must interpret international law. She analyzes their interpretative methodology and the predictability, clarity, and consistency of their reasoning. Highlighting the main gaps in contemporary international legal scholarship regarding international law in domestic courts, Ammann offers a fresh and thorough theoretical reflection on this topic. Based on a detailed study of the judicial practice, she shows how courts' interpretative method and reasoning can be further improved. She also argues that interpretative methods must be taken more seriously in international law. While she primarily uses the Swiss example to illustrate her claims, the basic tenets of her analysis apply to any domestic legal context.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of an often neglected, misunderstood and maligned source of international law. Article 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice sets out that the Court will apply the 'general principles of law recognized by civilized nations'. This source is variously lauded and criticised: held up as a panacea to all international law woes or denied even normative validity. The contrasting views and treatments of General Principles stem from a lack of a model of the source itself. This book provides that model, offering a new and rigorous understanding of Article 38(1)(c) that will be of immense value to scholars and practitioners of international law alike. At the heart of the book is a new tetrahedral framework of analysis - looking to function, type, methodology and jurisprudential legitimacy. Adopting an historical approach, the book traces the development of the source from 1875 to 2019, encompassing jurisprudence of the Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Court of Justice as well as cases from international criminal tribunals, the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organisation. The book argues for precision in identifying cases that actually apply General Principles, and builds upon these 'proper use' cases to advance a comprehensive model of General Principles, advocating for a global approach to the methodology of the source.

International lawyers have long recognised the importance of interpretation to their academic discipline and professional practice. As new insights on interpretation abound in other fields, international law and international lawyers have largely remained wedded to a rule-based approach, focusing almost exclusively on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Such an approach neglects interpretation as a distinct and broader field of theoretical inquiry. Interpretation in International Law brings international legal scholars together to engage in sustained reflection on the theme of interpretation. The book is creatively structured around the metaphor of the game, which captures and illuminates the constituent elements of an act of interpretation. The object of the game of interpretation is to persuade the audience that one's interpretation of the law is correct. The rules of play are known and complied with by the players, even though much is left to their skills and strategies. There is also a meta-discourse about the game of interpretation - 'playing the game of game-playing' - which involves consideration of the nature of the game, its underlying stakes, and who gets to decide by what rules one should play. Through a series of diverse contributions, Interpretation in International Law reveals interpretation as an inescapable feature of all areas of international law. It will be of interest and utility to all international lawyers whose work touches upon theoretical or practical aspects of interpretation.