Book Launch: The Legacy of the Wimbledon Case

On May 16, 2025, Jagiellonian University in Kraków will host a program to celebrate the publication of The Legacy of the Wimbledon Case: Centenary of the First Judgment of the Permanent Court of International Justice. Details are here.

Kwiecień & Fitzmaurice: The Legacy of the Wimbledon Case: Centenary of the First Judgment of the Permanent Court of International Justice

Roman Kwiecień (Jagiellonian Univ. - Law) & Malgosia Fitzmaurice (Queen Mary Univ. of London - Law) have published The Legacy of the Wimbledon Case: Centenary of the First Judgment of the Permanent Court of International Justice (Brill | Nijhoff 2025). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The book addresses the impact of the first judgment of the 'World Court' on the development of international law and its continuing relevance. The contributions to this book discuss the legal issues decided by the PCIJ in the Wimbledon case. In the Wimbledon judgment, the Court referred to the problems that are still important both for procedural and substantive international law, and which attract the attention of states, courts and the academia today. These include: state sovereignty, sources of international law, interpretation of legal rights and obligations following from treaties and custom, ‘objective regimes’, ‘self-contained regimes’, neutrality in armed conflicts, the status of international waterways, as well as the issues of jurisdiction such as third-party participation in international adjudication, or locus standi for the protection of community interests.

Call for Papers: The Case of the S.S. Lotus: The First 100 Years

A call for papers has been issued for the first of a series of workshops on "The Case of the S.S. Lotus: The First 100 Years," to be held in the hybrid format, in Lund and online, on January 9-10, 2025. The call is here.

Morris: The Concept of International Law in the Early Advisory Opinions of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), 1922–1930

P. Sean Morris (Univ. of Helsinki - Law) has posted The Concept of International Law in the Early Advisory Opinions of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), 1922–1930 (in The Hope of Ages is in the Process of Realization: Establishing a World Court, 1920 – 1922, Henri Waele & Christian Tams eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This chapter examines the employment of international law as a concept in the early Advisory Opinions of the PCIJ (1922–1930). After a short review of the gradual evolution of the broader idea of the law of nations in the works of Christian Wolff and Jeremy Bentham, the central argument is that, even when the PCIJ invoked international law as a term or as an interpretative mechanism, this was often in relation to either the broader international legal environment of the 1920s, or general principles of international law. The majority of the Court’s early Advisory Opinions do not display any references to scholarship, and as such rarely invoked international law as a concept. This appears to reflect an effort to align with the shifting paradigms of the day concerning the law of nations, and the ‘new’ international law of the twentieth century. The analysis suggests further that the judicial practice consisted of a ‘jurisprudential mode’ which eventually gave way to one more closely premised on ‘mutual transactions’.

Sałkiewicz-Munnerlyn: Jurisprudence of the PCIJ and of the ICJ on Interim Measures of Protection

Ewa Sałkiewicz-Munnerlyn has published Jurisprudence of the PCIJ and of the ICJ on Interim Measures of Protection (Asser Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

This book deals with all the cases that came before the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) from 1922 to 1946, as well as those that were heard by its successor, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 1946 to 2020 in which interim measures of protection were either indicated or refused. The monograph shows how cases in which injunctive relief was sought were handled and how the PCIJ and the ICJ have undergone certain reforms over the years. The new approach taken by the author is to present all the matters brought before both the PCIJ and ICJ in full and to present the new requirements on the part of the ICJ that have been formulated in recent years.

Kleinlein: The Versailles Peace Treaty Before the Permanent Court of International Justice: Tracing the Legalism of the Paris Settlement

Thomas Kleinlein (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena - Law) has posted The Versailles Peace Treaty Before the Permanent Court of International Justice: Tracing the Legalism of the Paris Settlement (German Yearbook of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The concept of international law underlying the Versailles Peace Treaty is marked by a complex and ambivalent combination of references to just peace and the use of the legal form. This article analyses the concept of law and the use of legal techniques and institu-tions in the Paris settlement, and connects it to various contemporaneous strands of ‘legal-ism’ and to the transformation from (classical) nineteenth-century to (modern) twentieth-century international law. In a second step, the article turns to how the ambivalent legalism in the Versailles Peace Treaty impacted on the respective case law of the Permanent Court and how this case law connects to ‘modern’ approaches to international law. While, in sub-stance, the cases involving the Versailles Peace Treaty raised issues of both post-war settle-ment and international organisation, in doctrinal terms, the Court tentatively developed a concept of international law that squares with modern approaches. This can be demonstrated by examination of the case law, which contributed to the law of international organisations, redefined sovereignty, and developed the humanitarian dimension of international law.

Call for Papers: ‘The Hope of Ages is in the Process of Realization’: Establishing a World Court, 1920-1922

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "‘The Hope of Ages is in the Process of Realization’: Establishing a World Court, 1920-1922," to take place in Nijmegen, on June 11-12, 2020. The call is here.

Call for Papers: ‘The Hope of Ages is in the Process of Realization’ Establishing a World Court, 1920-1922

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "‘The Hope of Ages is in the Process of Realization’ Establishing a World Court, 1920-1922," which will be held June 11-12, 2020, in Nijmegen. The call is here.

Seminar: Universal Jurisdiction and the Legacy of the Permanent Court of International Justice

On April 29, 2019, Maynooth University Law Department will hold a seminar on "Universal Jurisdiction and the Legacy of the Permanent Court of International Justice." Details are here.

Tams & Fitzmaurice: Legacies of the Permanent Court of International Justice

Christian J. Tams (Univ. of Glasgow - Law) & Malgosia Fitzmaurice (Queen Mary, Univ. of London - Law) have published Legacies of the Permanent Court of International Justice (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2013). Contents include:

• Malgosia Fitzmaurice & Christian J. Tams, Introduction
• Christian J. Tams, The Contentious Jurisdiction of the Permanent Court
• Marika Giles Samson & Douglas Guilfoyle, The Permanent Court of International Justice and the ‘Invention’ of International Advisory Jurisdiction
• Panos Merkouris, The Advisory Jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Justice in Practice: A Tale of Two Scopes
• Stephan Wittich, The PCIJ and the Modern International Law of Treaties
• Catherine Brölmann, The PCIJ and International Rights of Groups and Individuals
• Ursula Kriebaum, The PCIJ and the Protection of Foreign Investments
• Joanna Gomula, The Heritage of the Permanent Court of International Justice in WTO Jurisprudence
• Iain Scobbie, The Permanent Court of International Justice, Arbitration, and Claims Commissions of the Inter-War Period
• Jean d’Aspremont, The Permanent Court of International Justice and Domestic Courts: A Variation in Roles
• Anneliese Quast Mertsch, The Relationship Between the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Permanent Court of International Justice, and Its Signicance for International Law
• Akbar Rasulov, The Doctrine of Sources in the Discourse of the Permanent Court of International Justice
• Photini Pazartzis, Judicial Activism and Judicial Self-Restraint: The PCIJ’s Lotus Case
• Antonios Tzanakopoulos, The Permanent Court of International Justice and the ‘International Community’
• Roman Kwiecień, The Permanent Court of International Justice and the Constitutional Dimension of International Law: From Expectations to Reality
• Ole Spiermann, The Legacy of the Permanent Court of International of International Justice – On Judges, Scholars, and Also on Bishops and Clowns

Brölmann: The Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Rights of Groups and Individuals

Catherine M. Brölmann (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted The Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Rights of Groups and Individuals (in The Lasting Legacy of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Christian J. Tams & Panos Merkouris eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The Permanent Court of International Justice was established in a period in which the position of the State as the natural form of political organization had come under pressure, among others, in academic-legal circles. It was also the period in which international-legal concern for groups within the State became institutionalized, notably through the efforts of the League of Nations. And while the League brought institutional and procedural novelties, the Permanent Court - without much doctrine or precedent to rely on - contributed on significant points to the development of international law regarding non-State groups and individuals. It is a matter of debate whether in the interbellum international ‘rights’ or only ‘benefits’ for these entities were at issue but the Permanent Court’s contribution to the legal emancipation of individuals and - especially - minorities is undisputed (think for instance of the notion of 'formal and substantive equality’, the element of 'self-identification' as it came to be called in the 1970s, and the ‘factual approach’ to the existence of minorities or other legally relevant groups). This paper traces the contours of that contribution in the international-legal context of the time and in some hallmark PCIJ decisions.

Tams: The Contentious Jurisdiction of the Permanent Court

Christian J. Tams (Univ. of Glasgow - Law) has posted The Contentious Jurisdiction of the Permanent Court (in The Legacy of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Malgosia Fitzmaurice & Christian Tams eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The paper analyses the PCIJ's system of contentious jurisdiction. It argues that while the PCIJ was dissolved 65 years ago, it laid the foundations of a jursdictional system based on consent that still applies today.

Tzanakopoulos: The Permanent Court of International Justice and the 'International Community'

Antonios Tzanakopoulos (Univ. College London - Law) has posted The Permanent Court of International Justice and the 'International Community' (in The Legacy of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Malgosia Fitzmaurice & Christian Tams eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The purpose of this brief study is to gauge what the Permanent Court of International Justice might have had to say about the nebulous concept of the ‘international community’, as the Court administering the law of that community, but also developing it, thereby contributing to the stabilization and further integration of that community. This is done by ‘reverse-engineering’ the jurisprudence of the PCIJ, seeking to canvass how the Court understood the concept of the 'international community' and how it would have wanted it to evolve. The study surveys the Court’s case law for what are commonly accepted as the ‘hallmarks’ of an (international) community, or at least those commonly associated with the idea: the make-up of the community; the concept of obligations and action in the ‘general’ interest; and the existence of institutions providing protection of the community interest.

d'Aspremont: The Permanent Court of International Justice and Domestic Courts: A Variation in Roles

Jean d'Aspremont (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted The Permanent Court of International Justice and Domestic Courts: A Variation in Roles (in The Lasting Legacy of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Christian J. Tams, & Panos Merkouris eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

By virtue of other international adjudicatory bodies or the role of domestic courts, the Permanent Court of International Justice (hereafter PCIJ) was far from being entrusted of any sort of monopoly on the application of international law. It is fair to say that the PCIJ operated in a multi-judiciary world made of domestic and international judicial bodies equally dealing with questions of international law. In such a context, this paper examines some of the dynamics of the multi-judiciary world of the first half of the 20th century. It particularly zeroes in on the interactions of the Permanent Court of International Justice with other judicial bodies, in particular domestic judges. The first section offers a brief overview of the PCIJ’s claim that it is a court of the international legal order and its use of the case-law of other international adjudicatory bodies. The second section examines in further detail the relationship between the PCIJ and domestic courts, contrasting it with the Court’s self-proclaimed international character. On that occasion, it will be particularly shown that, while, on the surface, the Court stopped short of engaging with domestic courts, paying lip-service to their case-law, the PCIJ was inclined to freely interpret domestic law and actually operate as a municipal court itself. A few concluding and critical remarks are formulated, drawing on some analogies with the current dynamics in the practice of the International Court of Justice (hereafter the ICJ).

Conference: The Permanent Court and Modern International Law - Reflections on the PCIJ's Lasting Legacy

Next Friday, November 26, 2010, Queen Mary, University of London, the University of Glasgow, and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London, in co-operation with British Institute of International and Comparative Law, will host a conference on "The Permanent Court and Modern International Law Reflections on the PCIJ’s Lasting Legacy." The program is here.