University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law

Settlement of International Disputes (LL.M.)

Syllabus
  1. Introduction to International Courts and Tribunals
    1. History and development of international adjudication and arbitration
    2. The modern system of international courts and tribunals
    3. Classifications and terminology
    4. The function and scope of procedural rules
    5. The public/private divide in dispute resolution involving state parties
  2. Jurisdiction
    1. General principles: competence-competence; forum prorogatum; separability of dispute resolution clauses; jurisdiction ratione materiae, ratione personae and ratione temporis
    2. Specific issues for the vesting of jurisdiction: reliance upon the optional clause (ICJ); existence of an investment (investment treaties & ICSID); reliance on an MFN clause to expand jurisdiction (investment treaties). Incidental jurisdiction.
  3. Admissibility
    1. Distinction between jurisdiction and admissibility
    2. Absence of a necessary third party
    3. Diplomatic protection: nationality of claims and exhaustion of local remedies
    4. Investment treaty arbitration: contracts claims versus treaty claims; derivative claims by shareholders
  4. Justiciability and Arbitrability
    1. The doctrine of non-justiciability of political disputes
    2. The subject matter of disputes that can be submitted to arbitration (arbitrability): the problem of illegal transactions
  5. Applicable Laws
    1. Characterisation
    2. Law applicable to substantive issues, jurisdiction and admissibility, arbitration clause, procedure, capacity of parties, issues of state responsibility.
    3. The doctrine of municipal laws as facts before international courts and tribunals
    4. International public policy
    5. Problems of treaty interpretation before international courts and tribunals
    6. Choice of law problems in investment treaty arbitration
  6. Provisional Measures
    1. Source of power to grant provisional measures; Relationship with jurisdiction over the merits
    2. Circumstances relevant to granting provisional measures
    3. Provisional measures in territorial disputes
    4. Binding force and enforceability of provisional measures
  7. Remedies in International Adjudication
    1. The three forms of reparation: restitution, compensation, declaratory judgments
    2. Problems of restitution
    3. Problems of compensation: differentiating between the remedial consequences following from a breach of different substantive obligations
  8. Challenges to International Decisions; Recognition and Enforcement of International Decisions
    1. Interpretation and revision
    2. Challenge before the ICJ
    3. Challenge before the municipal courts at the seat of the arbitration
    4. The special case of ICSID annulment proceedings
    5. The New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards
  9. Denial of Justice
    1. The modern conception of denial of justice in international law
    2. Exhaustion of remedies as a substantive requirement
    3. Is denial of justice limited to a review of procedural aspects of the trial or hearing before the municipal court?
    4. Denial of justice in investment treaty arbitration
  10. Relations between Jurisdiction of International Courts
    1. The problem of overlapping jurisdictions and techniques to resolve jurisdictional conflicts
    2. Is the proliferation of international courts and tribunals leading to the fragmentation of international law? Does it matter?