PUBLIC LAW II:
Public International
Law
Prof. Dr. Gleider Hernández
Professor of Public International
Law Institute for
International Law Faculty of
Law, KU Leuven
2019-2020
,Structure of lecture
• Diplomatic Methods of Dispute
Settlement
o Negotiation
o Mediation
o Inquiry
o Conciliation
• Legal Methods of Dispute Settlement
o Arbitration
o Adjudication
• The International Court of Justice
o Contentious function
o Advisory function 2
,International disputes
• Prior to the Charter era and the 1929 Kellogg-Briand
Pact, recourse to force was an acceptable last resort in
settling disputes
• The international legal project has long been, however,
to resolve disputes peacefully
• Long history of dispute settlement before the Charter
and a great variety of methods designed to achieve this
• Article 2(3) UN Charter: obligation on States to resort to
peaceful dispute settlement
• Article 33(1) UN Charter enumerates a choice of means
to States: negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation,
arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional
agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means
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, What is a
dispute?
• Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions, PCIJ: a
dispute is ‘a disagreement over a point of law or
fact, a conflict of legal views or of interests’
• An ‘international’ dispute is generally between two
or more international legal subjects; this usually
means, but is not exclusively limited, to States
• Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear
Disarmament (ICJ, 2016): narrowing of the term
‘dispute’ due to lack of awareness on the part of the
UK that a dispute existed
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