Zoom In

An advisory opinion on climate emergency and human rights before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

1. Introduction On 9 January 2023 the Republic of Chile and the Republic of Colombia, both State parties to the American Convention on Human Rights (‘the Convention’),[1] jointly filed a request for an Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights (‘The Request’) before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘The Inter-American Court’ or...

The advisory proceedings on climate change before the International Court of Justice

1. Introduction Climate change, a crisis of unprecedented magnitude, is presenting novel challenges to the edifice of international law, and law more broadly. Legal scholars and practitioners worldwide are engaged in a complex exercise of reimagining and sometimes reviving legal norms to address this crisis. These efforts are most visible in the numerous judgments resulting...

The climate change advisory opinion request at the ITLOS

1. Climate change at the ITLOS Successfully addressing climate change and its consequences constitutes one of the major challenges of current times. Moving beyond the initial normative approach, which has resulted in the adoption of the UNFCCC[1] and the Paris Agreement,[2] states and other actors are now turning to national and international courts. This article...

Advisory opinions on climate change: Leading from the bench?

Introduced by Annalisa Savaresi While the prospect to instigate an inter-state dispute alleging State responsibility for a breach of an international obligation concerning climate change has been the subject of intense scholarly speculation,[1] no such litigation has materialized to date. Instead, after much debate on their respective utility and desirability,[2] three parallel advisory proceedings on...

Inter-legality and the challenge of democracy

1. Introduction In a lengthy review essay on The Challenge of Inter-legality,[1] the always insightful Neil Walker suggested that the very idea of inter-legality might have to overcome some serious challenges.[2] Some of these are empirical in nature: is it really the case that courts generally are in the business of applying inter-legality, and how...

The quest for equilibrium: Democracy, International Law and Metamodernism

1. Introduction In perusing di issue of democracy vis-à-vis international law as well as in the extra-State space, I would keep on the forefront the question regarding the role that law can play in a complex and transformative setting where a large number of political and normative authorities intersect by crosscutting territorial borders: whether ‘democracy’...

Is democracy a challenge to inter-legality?

Introduced by Antonello Tancredi   The scientific project on ‘inter-legality’ has at least three different dimensions: descriptive, ontological and prescriptive. As far as the descriptive dimension is concerned, the project is based on a new understanding of legal pluralism. The concept of inter-legality, as is well known, was coined by the Portuguese legal sociologist Boaventura...

Third parties before the European Court of Human Rights: Addressing Limits, Unfolding Potentials

What are amicus interventions for? Some provocations on non-disputing party submissions in international investment arbitration

What is Good for the Administration of Justice? Considerations in Light of the Practice on Third-Party Participation

1. Introduction On 5 June 2023, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued the Order on the admissibility of the declarations of intervention in the Ukraine v Russia case.[1] Interestingly, the expression ‘good administration of justice’ comes up repeatedly in the Order, mainly as a potential limit to the admission of such interventions.[2] The Court...

A Rush to Judgment? The Wobbly Bridge from Judicial Standing to Intervention in ICJ Proceedings

1. Introduction The present article aims to briefly connect two procedural questions that loomed large at two academic events in May 2023. In the first, the authors in this symposium convened for a warm and friendly discussion at the University of Bologna.[1] Among other stimulating questions, participants debated the relationship between, on the one hand,...

Third-party participation in international adjudication: recent trends and ongoing issues

Introduced by Gian Maria Farnelli and Alessandra Sardu The possibility for States other than the disputing parties to participate in a given international dispute has been regulated by Statutes and rules of procedure of international courts and tribunals ever since the 1907 First Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. Article 84 of...