Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Chester Brown
Started off with an example: the Serbia case re: Legality of Use of Force had the issue of
whether the ICJ had the power to remove cases from its List before deciding if it had
jurisdiction.
o ICJ did not rule on this expressly but it exercised the removal power anyway.
Another example: ICJ was requested to remove cases because it [ICJ] was not competent
o ICJ had no JD
o Judge Higgins begged to differ: this removal was an inherent power, therefore, the
court, as a master of its own procedure, may motu proprio strike a case from the List
o This inherent power is not related to the intention of the parties but to the judicial task of
the court
VII. Conclusion
Sources of law relevant to procedure are: relevant international court’s constitutive
instruments and rules of procedure, and also include customary international law,
general principles of law, and judicial decisions and doctrine.
o With respect to their procedural powers, international courts are not restricted to
those conferred by their constitutive instruments—whether express or implied—
but can also exercise inherent powers.
While the source of inherent powers in international adjudication has not previously
been clarified, it is suggested that it lies in the need for international courts to fulfill their
judicial functions: the settlement of international disputes by adjudication, and the
proper administration of international justice, although each international court may, in
addition, have different functions specific to the regime within which it operates.
There are important restrictions on the ability of international courts to exercise inherent
powers; these lie in the limitations to the exercise of international judicial jurisdiction; the
extent of the functions of international courts; the terms of their constitutive instruments;
and, also, the relationship between a particular international court and the parties before
it.
International courts might, through the careful exercise of such powers, better manage
the complex challenges being posed to the administration of international justice.