The Unruly Notion of Abuse of Rights

Challenges the claim to elevate the theory of abuse of rights to the status of a general principle of law.

Jan Paulsson (Author)

9781108814836, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 August 2022

158 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.9 cm, 0.225 kg

'I strongly recommend this book, supremely sharp on technical reasoning and sensitive to challenges and limitations of the reality of international dispute settlement that the author knows so well. Whether the reader finds themselves largely persuaded by Paulsson's argument, as I was, they will certainly be intellectually enriched from reading the treatment of an important topic by one of the great figures of modern international dispute settlement. The essentially simultaneous publication in autumn 2020 of The Unruly Notion of Abuse of Rights and the merits judgment of the ICJ in Immunities and Criminal Proceedings puts the book under review in the rare category of perfectly timed scholarship that independently captures the substance of the leading judgment, explains the intellectual backstory of a key concept, and is likely to significantly shape future developments in the field.' Martins Paparinskis, Arbitration International

Everyone condemns what they perceive as 'abuse of rights', and some would elevate it to a general principle of law. But the notion seldom suffices to be applied as a rule of decision. When adjudicators purport to do so they expose themselves to charges of unpredictability, if not arbitrariness. After examining the dissimilar origins and justification of the notion in national and international doctrine, and the difficulty of its application in both comparative and international law, this book concludes that except when given context as part of a lex specialis, it is too nebulous to serve as a general principle of international law.

1. Matters of nomenclature
2. An idealistic but troublesome impulse
3. A cacophony of criteria
4. A 'principle' with no rules?
5. The challenge of establishing universal principles
6. The Politis/Lauterpacht quest to elevate abuse of right
7. Rejection and retrenchment
8. The vanishing prospect.

Subject Areas: Arbitration, mediation & alternative dispute resolution [LNAC5], International arbitration [LBHT], Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], Law [L]