International Dispute Settlement in an Evolving Global Society: Constitutionalization, Accessibility, Privatization

Extract

International Dispute Settlement in an Evolving Global Society: Constitutionalization, Accessibility, Privatization, Francisco Orrego Vicuña, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp.xxiii, 156.

This compilation of the author's 2001 Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures at Cambridge provides a comprehensive overview of the methods and modes of international dispute settlement. Included in the broad survey are the central public and private dispute resolution processes at the United Nations and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), regional arrangements, national jurisdictions and private party-to-party arrangements. The book achieves its stated goal of identifying trends and provoking discussion of ways in which international dispute resolution can be improved, and in the process has created a useful primer on transnational dispute settlement for social scientists. The lectures have been supplemented with footnotes and the book includes a comprehensive bibliography that includes most of the important recent works in the international law literature on dispute resolution. The strength of the volume lies in its discussion of private dispute resolution and its interplay with public institutions, an area that is often ignored or played down in political science literature focused on state-to-state legal arrangements and interstate relations.