A few centuries ago, the main ways to resolve international conflicts or other issues were diplomacy and war. Moreover, the second method was used much more often than the first, due to the fact that with its help it was possible to achieve great results in case of victory. But as society developed, its legal culture evolved. It became clear that war brings harm to both the conquered and the victors. Thus, society began to look for more comfortable ways to resolve international legal disputes. A big impetus to such thoughts was the emergence of a specific legal industry, which regulated relations between entities that had the status of states.
International law has greatly helped to develop a way of dialogue between countries, with the help of which it would be possible to solve almost any problems. To achieve the implementation of international legal norms, created special bodies that received the status of courts. To date, a large number of subjects of both public and private law apply to such courts. In the article we will characterize and disclose the main aspects of international courts of various kinds.
The concept of international courts
For any ordinary citizen, the question of what an international court is almost always a mystery. Regardless of the status and direction of the international court, there is a single legal regulation of the activities of such bodies. An interesting fact is that any international court is a consequence of a certain agreement concluded between states. Given this fact and other features, we can single out a single concept. Thus, an international court is a body that is created solely on the basis of a specific international treaty with the aim of resolving and resolving disputes of various nature between states and, in some cases, private individuals. Today in the world there are many different courts, each of which is responsible for a particular sector of international law. The article will present the most famous of them.
Legal status of decisions of international courts
There are many questions about how the law of international courts is implemented. The problem is that there is no single mechanism by which the solutions presented in the article were used at the national level in individual countries. In the theory of international law, a concept has been developed that states that a decision of an international court is implemented within the framework of the treaty by which it was created. Given the specifics of such organizations, the presented concept is quite reasonable. Thus, the status of an international court of any kind is regulated by a specific international treaty between certain states.
UN International Court of Justice
One of the most famous and truly important bodies in the field of regulation of international disputes is the UN court.
This authority was established in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations in 1945. The Authority is one of the six main departments of the Organization. According to the Charter, it regulates international legal disputes in accordance with the principles of justice and conflict resolution by peaceful means. The UN International Court of Justice was largely founded due to the Second World War, when people understood the horror of such conflicts. Its activities are regulated by a separate regulatory document of the organization. Today, such is the statute of the international court of the United Nations.
UN court status and sources of law applied by it
The legal status of the court is completely dependent on the normative documents of the United Nations. As a rule, its concurrent members are members of the international court. This body was established based on the status of the Organization. In its activities, the UN court uses a significant number of sources of international law. According to article 38 of its Statute, the following legal sources apply to resolve certain legal disputes:
- conventions, treaties of international legal character;
- international legal customs ;
- general principles of law that exist in all legal systems;
- decisions of individual specialists, as well as the most famous international legal doctrines.
In some cases, the court may substantiate its decisions with the principles of justice, without limiting itself to formalized international legal norms.
Jurisdiction
The UN International Court of Justice extends its jurisdiction only to those entities that have given direct consent to the consideration of the case in this instance. As a rule, UN member states have several basic ways in which they can express their desire to participate in a trial led by an international court. Similar methods include the following:
- Agreements of a special nature (parties to a dispute agree among themselves on its transfer to an international court).
- Some treaties contain articles that initially oblige the party to resolve all disputes arising with another state in an international court of the United Nations.
- Sometimes a participating country recognizes the jurisdiction of a court as mandatory through a unilateral declaration.
On the basis of the conditions presented, the UN international court operates in the process of resolving disputes between states.
International Court of Human Rights
In many civilized states of our time, the main value is, first of all, man. Therefore, his rights and freedoms are protected by many legislative acts of both the national and international legal systems.
But even taking into account the development of the legal culture of the planet’s population, human rights are often violated. They are trying to fight this negative factor, but in some cases they have to go to court. The main body in this area is the international court of human rights. This name is not entirely correct, because the body has a slightly different name, namely the European Court of Human Rights, founded in 1953. The implementation of the rules of the court is carried out exclusively in relation to the countries party to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights is not a higher authority than the entire judicial system of a state. Nevertheless, if we take for example the Russian Federation, which is a member of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and its Fundamental Freedoms, then the decisions of the international court are included in the system of national law as an obligatory element. Moreover, the legal force of decisions is greater than the regulatory acts of the bodies of national legislation of the Russian Federation.
With regard to the implementation of decisions of the international court of human rights, there have been no cases of non-enforcement of its acts in the entire history of the existence of this body. In its decisions, the court has the right to justifiably satisfy the claims of the parties, as well as to compensate for harm, moral damage and legal costs.
Conditions for filing complaints with the International Court of Human Rights
For a court to accept a complaint for consideration, it must meet two basic conditions, namely:
- You can complain about violations of only those human rights and freedoms that are expressly provided for in the convention. The exclusive rights prescribed only in the constitutions of individual states are not taken into account. An interesting fact is that some of the freedoms listed in the convention are a novelty for many states parties, but this fact does not exclude liability for their violation.
- In accordance with article 34 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the court may receive complaints from individuals, groups of individuals and non-profit organizations, which, in their opinion, have become victims of a direct violation of rights.
The court has the status of an international organization, therefore a person who is not a citizen of a member state of the Council of Europe may apply to it. Another important condition for filing a complaint for consideration in a human rights court is the fact that a person must expend all means of protecting his rights at the national level and only then apply to international instances.
International Commercial Arbitration
Today, much attention is paid to international trade, because the global market is evolving almost every second. As in all other spheres of human activity, disputes also arise in this area, which need to be addressed in some way.
For this, there is an international commercial arbitration court. This body is specifically designed to deal with and resolve disputes arising directly between participants in international commercial transactions. In this case, persons or parties to disputes may be organizations of completely different affiliation with state structures. The International Commercial Court must be distinguished from other instances that resolve disputes directly between states.
Features of international arbitration
Along with state judicial bodies, the international commercial arbitration court is a fairly popular way to resolve disputes between parties to a contract, transaction, etc. This allows you to highlight the most striking features of the presented body, namely:
- Enforcement of decisions of international arbitration is a rather time-consuming and controversial issue. To date, there is no single mechanism for the enforcement of judicial decisions of an international body that would be implemented in absolutely all states. This negative factor in some situations allows parties to abuse their rights contrary to a court decision.
- The International Arbitration Court uses the principle of confidentiality, which allows the parties to leave their dispute secret from everyone.
- Given the fact that the arbitration proceedings may well drag on for years, this specific type of protection of one’s rights is notable for its high costs, primarily for legal costs and other necessary expenses (hiring consultants, lawyers, etc.).
- The International Arbitration Court is a neutral body that will not give personal preference to any of the parties to the dispute.
International Criminal Court
An important breakthrough in the field of international justice was the creation of an international criminal court. According to the Rome Statute (the founding document of the body), an international criminal court is an instance of criminal justice of a worldwide nature. Its direct competence includes the prosecution of persons who have committed the following types of offenses: war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity.
Court status
The International Criminal Court is a permanent body, in contrast to the point tribunals, which consider individual crimes. In addition, the ICC is a separate court located in The Hague. It is not part of the UN structure, although in certain cases it can initiate proceedings on the basis of the submission of this body. Cases are reviewed upon ratification of the Rome Statute, the rules of which are currently in force in 123 states. There are countries that are not among the parties to the statute, but are actively helping to carry out the activities of the international criminal court and its structural bodies. Such states include the Russian Federation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be noted that international justice is not only an important branch of world law in general, but also a big step towards the development of dialogue between states. Let us hope that soon all important issues between the countries will be considered in international bodies.