On the Need to Regulate Competing Jurisdictions between International Courts and Tribunals

Abstract

Competing jurisdiction is a relatively new but increasingly important phenomenon in international law. The ongoing proliferation of international courts and tribunals results in a multiplication of judgments and arbitral awards, which potentially conflict with each other. The case studies examined in this working paper illustrate the methods applied by various courts and tribunals to deal with competing jurisdictions. Since any formal hierarchy or coordination between the various international courts and tribunals is lacking, only soft law methods, such as the application of comity, in particular, the Solange method, appears to be a useful tool to deal with the negative effects associated with competing jurisdictions.