Comparative Reasoning in International Courts and Tribunals

This book examines an unexplored method of interpretation: the use of domestic law in the interpretation of international law.

Daniel Peat (Author)

9781108415477, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 June 2019

292 pages
23.4 x 15.7 x 1.7 cm, 0.6 kg

'Peat seeks to explore “how and why domestic law is used by international courts and tribunals to interpret international law” by examining how adjudicators have engaged with “domestic legislation and regulations, and the judgments of domestic courts” when constructing and applying international legal materials.' The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals

Domestic law has long been recognised as a source of international law, an inspiration for legal developments, or the benchmark against which a legal system is to be assessed. Academic commentary normally re-traces these well-trodden paths, leaving one with the impression that the interaction between domestic and international law is unworthy of further enquiry. However, a different - and surprisingly pervasive - nexus between the two spheres has been largely overlooked: the use of domestic law in the interpretation of international law. This book examines the practice of five international courts and tribunals to demonstrate that domestic law is invoked to interpret international law, often outside the framework of Articles 31 to 33 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. It assesses the appropriateness of such recourse to domestic law as well as situating the practice within broader debates regarding interpretation and the interaction between domestic and international legal systems.

Introduction
1. The limits of the Vienna Convention
2. Domestic law in the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice
3. The interpretation of schedules of commitments in the WTO
4. International investment law and the public law analogy
5. Consensus doctrine in the European Court of Human Rights
6. Domestic law and system building in the ICTY
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Human rights & civil liberties law [LNDC], Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], Law [L], EU & European institutions [JPSN2], International relations [JPS]