A guide to the techniques and institutions used to solve international disputes, how they work and when they are used. This textbook looks at diplomatic (negotiation, mediation, inquiry and conciliation) and legal methods (arbitration, judicial settlement). It uses many, often topical, examples of each method in practice to place the theory of how things should work in the context of real-life situations and to help the reader understand the strengths and weaknesses of different methods when they are used. It also looks at organisations such as the International Court and the United Nations and has been fully updated to include the most recent arbitrations, developments in the WTO and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, as well as case law from the International Court of Justice.

For many years it was said that the weakness of international law was the lack of a system for the enforcement of legal obligations. Commentators pointed to the paucity of cases in the International Court and the unwillingness of States to undertake binding obligations to settle their disputes. This position has now changed beyond recognition. The number of international tribunals has increased and many of them, such as ICSID and the International Court of Justice, are busier than at any time in their history. Increasingly, the classical procedures of diplomatic protection are circumvented as corporations and individuals litigate in their own right against States in international tribunals. This book surveys the range of procedures for the settlement of international disputes, whether the disputes arise between States or between States and corporations or individuals. The first part of the book examines non-judicial procedures such as negotiation, mediation, fact-finding, as well as judicial procedures. Among the tribunals covered are ICSID, the UNCC and the Iran-US Claim Tribunal, the WTO disputes panels, ad-hoc inter-State and international commercial arbitral tribunals and the International Court of Justice. In the second part of the book the emerging principles of procedural law applied in these tribunals are discussed. Here the authors go through the entire settlement process from the agreement to submit to a settlement procedure and the constitution of the tribunal, through to the determination of the law applicable to the merits and to the procedure of the tribunal, to the review, and ultimately the recognition and enforcement of tribunal awards.

Disputes arising from foreign investment activities are on the increase, and with them a growing awareness among practitioners of a greater variety of settlement methods than most legal analyses have dealt with heretofore. With the experience gained in recent years from a broad spectrum of successful negotiation, arbitration, and litigation techniques, it is possible to derive a comprehensive, critical survey of the principal methods of settling foreign investment disputes. This outstanding book masterfully provides such a survey. The Settlement of Foreign Investment Disputes in International Law treats the subject systematically, dealing first with the internal balances within modern foreign investment contracts, the complexities that arise due to state participation or interference in these contracts, and the stances that are taken when disputes arise. It goes on to examine, in turn, the main issues involved in negotiation, arbitration, and judicial settlement as the methods of settling foreign investment disputes, discussing the controversial themes in each of these methods in detail. Recognizing that the focus of attention is shifting to the misconduct of multinational corporations, the last chapter contains a discussion of the role of domestic courts.

This book offers students a clear and systematic overview of procedures for peaceful dispute settlement in international law.

Raising a series of questions on resolving mass disputes, and fuelling future debate, this book will provide a challenging and thought-provoking read for law academics, practitioners and policy-makers.

Any experienced lawyer knows that cases are most often won or lost on procedural grounds; yet procedural issues are often considered too technical for proper treatment in legal literature. In this extensively revised new edition of Palmeter and Mavroidis' authoritative book on WTO dispute settlement, the authors discuss all WTO dispute settlement provisions and their interpretation in WTO jurisprudence. All the decisions of panels and the Appellate Body are discussed, from the inception of the WTO in 1995 until the end of May 2003. Although the book contains considerable technical expertise, it is at the same time written for accessibility to a wide readership. This volume - an essential tool for practitioners, diplomats and government lawyers - is a comprehensive study of compulsory third party adjudication in international law.

This handbook offers a detailed explanation of the rules and procedures of the WTO dispute settlement system.