41. Liability for Environmental Damage in Antarctica: Supplement to the Rules on State Responsibility or a Lost Opportunity?

Abstract

This chapter shows that international courts and tribunals have on the whole adopted the common law approach to litigation. But the difference between common law and civil law approaches to pleading before the ICJ is not as great as is sometimes suggested. It is true that there are substantial differences between (and within) the various legal traditions. The differences between the common law and civil law approach to pleading before the ICJ are therefore a question of language, emphasis and intellectual approach, rather than a fundamental divide. That is not to suggest that differences between Anglo-Saxon and continental attitudes should simply be ignored once lawyers from different jurisdictions put on their international lawyer hats or gowns. Differences in perspective between lawyers from different jurisdiction continue to engender lively and interesting discussions and international law is richer because of it. Keywords: Anglo-Saxon approach; civil law approach; common law approach; continental approach; ICJ; international courts; international law; international tribunals