An easily accessible and comprehensive study of the International Court of Justice, this book succinctly explains all aspects of the world's most important court, including an overview of its composition and operation, jurisdiction, procedure, and the nature and impact of its judgments.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Forum shopping, which consists of strategic forum selection, parallel litigation and serial litigation, is a phenomenon of growing importance in international adjudication. Preliminary objections (or a party's placement of conditions on the existence and development of the adjudicatory process) have been traditionally conceived as barriers to adjudication before single forums. This book discusses how adjudicators and parties may refer to questions of jurisdiction and admissibility in order to avoid conflicting decisions on overlapping cases, excessive exercises of jurisdiction and the proliferation of litigation. It highlights an emerging, overlooked function of preliminary objections: transmission belts of procedure-regulating rules across the 'international judiciary'. Activating this often dormant, managerial function of preliminary objections would nurture coordination of otherwise independent and autonomous tribunals.

The International Court of Justice, principal judicial organ of the United Nations, plays an important and unique role in the peaceful settlement of international disputes. As a third-party mechanism, it is a highly technical and well-structured institution. Through its continuous and consistent jurisprudence, it provides legal certainty, stability and predictability to the interpretation and application of international law. This special course intends to introduce some general concepts that underlie international adjudication and the basic rules and principles governing the competence and jurisdiction of the Court. Notwithstanding its prominence, the Court does not have a general and unconditional competence in dispute resolution. Its jurisdiction is based on the consent of the States, both in general terms as well as in each specific case, which reflects the attributes of the State system. Jurisdiction is a substantive matter. The Court’s decision on the question of jurisdiction is no less important than on the merits.