International Rule of Law: The Need and Quest for International Compulsory Jurisdiction

Abstract

Most of the classic works on international adjudication date from a time when one counted only on, besides the Permanent Court of Arbitration and international arbitral tribunals, the Hague Court the Permanent Court of International Justice [PCIJ] followed by the International Court of Justice [ICJ]. The system of the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea allows States Parties to the Convention the option between the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, or the ICJ, or else arbitration. This is symptomatic of the way contemporary International Law has evolved, and of an increasing recourse to international adjudication. One can detect the current process of humanization of International Law, disclosing a new outlook of the relations between public power and human being. In operating, and constructing the converging case-law, the European and the Inter-American Courts, have contributed to enrich and humanize contemporary Public International Law.Keywords: American; European; Hague Court; International Court of Justice [ICJ]; International Law; Jurisdiction; Law of the Sea; Permanent Court of International Justice [PCIJ]