Description: The World Court's exclusive resolution of inter-state disputes has become one of the cornerstones of its identity. This insightful critique challenges the implication that individuals have little importance in such disputes as a result, revealing their relevance in a myriad of disputes beyond those centered on violations of multilateral human rights treaties. Arguing for individuals' enhanced integration, it unveils a multitude of procedural practices with unquenched potential. It also carefully unpacks the Court's legal reasoning antithetical to individuals' critical relevance in traditionally state-centric territorial or maritime disputes, amongst others. Critically analysing and evaluating the legal and political underpinnings for the Court's approaches and state litigants' choices from a lens of social idealism, this pioneering study sheds light on the imbalance between individuals as key stakeholders in inter-state disputes and the degree to which they are treated as such in law and practice. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Brief description: Yusra Suedi is a lecturer in International Law at the University of Manchester. She has worked for the United Nations and in international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice. She has also worked in cases before the International Court of Justice.
Review Quotes: 'A work that is original and timely, inviting the reader to re-think classical approaches to the nature and functioning of the international legal order and bring it into a new reality. A rare work, one that captures the zeitgeist, is finely written, beautifully structured, and should be a point of significant reference on roads yet to be travelled.' Philippe Sands, Professor of the Public Understanding of Law, University College London, Barrister (King's Counsel), 11KBW