Enhancing the Effectiveness of Procedures of International Dispute Settlement

Abstract

Let me begin by stating the obvious: there is no single set of rules and practices governing the judicial process — for there is no single such process. Instead there are many tribunals, each with its own procedures for settling disputes, often set out in the form of a Statute supplemented by more specific Rules of Court. The procedures of those different tribunals reflect their very different characteristics, such as their world-wide, or regional scope; or their purely bilateral nature; or their character as standing tribunals or as ad hoc tribunals; or the limited, or unlimited, subject-matter of the disputes which may be brought before them. While there is, of course, much procedural borrowing of practices by one tribunal from others and while certain principles may find expression in the procedures of many tribunals, yet one cannot speak of international rules of procedure. Questions can in practice only be pursued on a tribunal-by-tribunal basis. There is a further problem about the topic I am addressing, and it is perhaps more fundamental. Its implication is that inter-state judicial settlement procedures are ineffective — or at least not as effective as