99685 - LITIGATING STATE AND PRIVATE INTERESTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, a student knows: • The main international arbitral and judicial dispute settlement bodies; • The sources of international adjectival law/the law of international adjudication; • The content of principles and rules of international adjectival law; • How to structure a research on international procedural law, or a pleading for a moot competition.

Course contents

The course addresses the procedural aspects of international adjudication as the most common method of inter-State and individual-State dispute settlement and, thus, as a means to foster international peace and security.

The focus will be on the analysis of its role as a mechanism of dispute settlement, its institutions and the rules and principles governing its functioning. In order to do so, attention will be given both to Statues and rules of procedure of relevant international judicial bodies, and to their case law on procedural matters.

The course will be divided in three modules. Module A (8 hours) is devoted to the historical and institutional development of international adjudication and arbitration will be analysed, starting from the end of the XIX Century up to the constitution of international criminal tribunals at the end of the XX Century. A distinction will be made between, on the one hand, inter-state judicial bodies, such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) and the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Body (WTO DSB); and, on the other, individual-State adjudicative bodies, such as tje International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the African Court of Human Rights (ACtHR).

Module B (16 hourse) addresses the sources of international adjectival law, stressing the role of general principles of procedural law.  Attention is in particular devoted to rules and principles governing jurisdiction and admissibility of claims, incidental proceedings (provisional measures and third parties intervention), counter-claims and the treatment of evidence.

Module C (6 hours) is a case-study to be discussed during classes as to how to plead the position of the claimant and respondet.

Readings/Bibliography

John Merrills, Eric De Brabandere, Merrills' International Dispute Settlement (Cambridge University Press 2022; 7th Ed), Chapters 1 and 6-11.

Further digital materials will be provided by the teacher during the course.

Teaching methods

Lectures delivered by the teacher and seminars.

Mandatory attendace at 70%, according to the Legal Studies Course regulation.

Assessment methods

Students will be allowed to take the exam in two different formats:

1) Students may participate in a moot exercise. They will be divided into groups and required to submit a written pleading concerning a school case by mid-June 2024. Simulation of oral hearings will be subsequently held in July 2024.

2) Alternatively, a written exam of one hour will be held during ordinary session. The exam will be composed of an open question concerning a school case.

Office hours

See the website of Gian Maria Farnelli