Aspects of the Administration of International Justice by Elihu Lauterpact

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Aspects of the Administration of International Justice, by Elihu Lauterpact Published by Grotius Publications Limited, Cambridge, U.K. (1991, 166 pp., incl. Contents, Preface, Table of Cases, Table of Treaties and other International Instruments, and Index ). Hardback. Price UK £35, US $70. The objective of this book, which is not readily apparent from the title, is to analyse certain underlying aspects of the present international adjudicatory. system. The desire of the author, who is the Director of the Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University and an experienced teacher and practitioner of international law, is to take the opportunity to make suggestions that may ‘improve and perfect the international legal system’ (p. xiii). The book, being based on a series of lectures, is of a generalised nature, and can be easily criticised for its lack of depth and completeness, but this reviewer at least found that its refreshingly straightforward style, uncluttered by repetitious examples, helped to further the understanding of a complex area. The author makes it clear from the outset that he has a realistic approach to the subject recognising that ‘litigation is not the only, or even the best way of settling disputes. It is an inescapable fact that issues that divide States are best settled by negotiation and agreement’ (p. 6). Indeed, the author is quite rightly of the opinion that so called non-judicial methods of settling disputes: negotiation, good offices, mediation, conciliation, not only merge into one another but also spill over into judicial settlement, a concept which includes arbitration as well as decisions by an established court such as the International Court of Justice. One can readily see non-legal factors playing a role in arbitration, particularly in the formulation of the compromis and in the choice of arbitrators (see Chapter V), but the author is going further by suggesting that the judicial function at the international level, whether by an arbitrator or by a World Court judge, involves a far greater degree of discretion than its equivalent in the municipal sphere (p. 146). This point is …