Jurisdiction: Betwixt Unilateralism and Global Coordination

Abstract

This chapter explores some of the commonalities and differences relating to jurisdiction with an international aspect (for short ‘international jurisdiction’) in private and public international law, to enable a joint examination of on-going developments in both disciplines in the pursuit of further global systemic coherence. Though public and private international law raise distinctive questions, and each has established its own rules and processes in this regard, there is a fundamentally shared tension between balancing the jurisdictional assertions of each territorial unit against managing coherency and integrity within the wider system. Thus, whilst this chapter starts from the relatively uncontroversial premise that international law, both public and private, should seek to circumscribe outlandish jurisdictional claims and to adopt rules and principles to ensure the ‘system’ operates as smoothly—as efficaciously—as possible, we are significantly more circumspect as to either the practicality, or value, of an increasingly institutionalised top-down system. We argue that a principled coordination of international competence is possible without an unnecessarily centralised control of jurisdiction