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The Politics of Precedent in International Law: A Social Network Application

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2014

KRZYSZTOF J. PELC
KRZYSZTOF J. PELC*
Affiliation:
McGill University
*
Krzysztof J. Pelc is William Dawson Scholar and Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, McGill University (kj.pelc@mcgill.ca).
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Extract

The concept of precedent is fundamental to domestic courts, especially in Anglo-American common law systems, where judges are bound to the court’s past decisions. By contrast, precedent has no formal authority in international law. Legal scholars point to Article 59 of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Statute in this respect, according to which international legal rulings are binding only on the parties in the dispute at hand, and have no bearing on matters outside of the case.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 108 , Issue 3 , August 2014 , pp. 547 - 564
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

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