Welcome to International Law in Domestic Courts
Editors-in-chief: Professor André Nollkaemper and Professor Erika de Wet of the University of Amsterdam Center for International Law
Managing Editor: Edda Kristjánsdóttir of the University of Amsterdam Center for International Law
International Law in Domestic Courts (ILDC) brings you the most important international law issues being decided in domestic courts* around the world today. With legal experts in the field reporting on cases from over sixty-five jurisdictions, this online service highlights the full range of jurisprudence around the globe in a format that makes it easy to pinpoint specific legal issues and to compare how these issues have been dealt with in different jurisdictions. A vital resource for both lawyers in practice and legal scholars in a rapidly evolving field, ILDC tracks the changes in the law as they occur, offering bi-monthly updates on cases soon after they appear.
Throughout the year, our world-wide team of legal scholars monitors local courts in their assigned jurisdictions and selects the most relevant cases that examine issues of international law. Their expert commentary highlights the most salient points of the case and provides legal context to understand the implications of how national courts have interpreted International Law in reaching their decisions. English translations of key passages, along with full judgments in the original language, make this a valuable tool for lawyers and legal scholars in all practice settings.
A rigorous selection process seeks to include both those cases that are relevant for the identification and interpretation of principles and rules of general international law (principles of jurisdiction, immunities, state succession, responsibility, general principles) as well as cases relevant for the identification and interpretation of principles and rules of international law in certain functional fields, such as human rights law, international criminal law, and many more.
*The policy of ILDC is to cover case law not only from states but also from certain territorial entities that are not generally classified as states. This is done in recognition of the fact that judicial decisions of such entities can be of interest to international law, as recognized among others by the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.
Publication of judicial decisions from such territorial entities does not reflect an opinion as to whether these entities should or should not be classified as states.
Message from the Editors
ILDC seeks to fill a gap created by the fact that the study of international law traditionally has focused more on international institutions than on domestic actors. The ILDC project is based upon the recognition that a proper understanding of the development of international law requires knowledge of the role of different domestic jurisdictions in applying and interpreting international law.
Until now, access to domestic case law has been limited. Many cases are unpublished and even fewer translated into English. Where such translations are available, their effects may not be fully understood without explanations about the underlying domestic legal system. The vast majority of reported cases and decisions originate from large Anglo-phone Western jurisdictions. For jurisdictions in other regions, very limited information is available to the international public at large. Due to language and other barriers, decisions from these jurisdictions are not receiving the attention they deserve.
ILDC aims to fill part of the existing gap by providing all stakeholders with information on how domestic courts across the world interpret and apply international law in their national legal orders, how they thereby contribute to the development of international law, and to what extent they share approaches to common problems across national borders. ILDC is also intended to advance fundamental research on international law in general, as well as on its interaction with national law.
