Non-State Actors and the Proliferation and Individualization of International Dispute Settlement

Abstract

Traditionally legal scholarship has distinguished between diplomatic and legal dispute settlement mechanisms. The first type of mechanism relies on diplomacy, while the latter are methods which leave the legal settlement of the dispute to neutral third parties. In recent decades, the number of legal dispute settlement mechanisms charged with settling disputes based on international law has significantly increased. The role and involvement of non-state actors in these ‘new’ and existing judicial dispute settlement mechanisms is multifaceted. This article focuses on three specific actors: international organizations (IOs), individuals and corporations, which from the perspective of international dispute settlement are the most important players, after states.The ‘proliferation’ of dispute settlement mechanisms has resulted in international attention and scholarly reflection being focused on whether this development has led to a judicialization of disputes settlement. But whether states, by the creation of various types of legal mechanisms, have added legal constraints on their inherent right to define independently their own international political agenda remains unclear.The first section will portray the move from diplomatic to legal dispute settlement mechanisms and the proliferation of legal dispute settlement mechanisms over recent decades. The second section will provide an overview of the methods for dispute settlement offered by IOs, focusing on the diplomatic and legal mechanisms within the United Nations (UN). It will next analyse the increasing involvement of individuals and corporations in international dispute settlement in the areas of human rights and direct foreign investment, and the resulting privatization of dispute settlement. The last section will assess whether these developments have led to a judicialization of the way in which disputes between states are settled.