Iain Scobbie

The University of Manchester · University of Manchester School of Law

The settlement of interstate disputes through recourse to courts and tribunals has grown gradually over the years, not only through the creation of new mechanisms to that effect, but also by using existing courts and tribunals. How these different international dispute settlement mechanisms operate in theory and practice is the subject of this comp...

This chapter initially examines philosophical approaches to the international use of force in an historical context before examining the development of the doctrine of collective security as the unifying value of international relations at the end of the First World War and subsequently. States’ right of self-defence is seen as an exception to this...

In international law, as in every legal system, rules are invariably subject to exceptions. This book brings together experts in legal theory and international law to investigate this phenomenon from both a theoretical and doctrinal perspective. It begins with several chapters looking at the relationship between rules and exceptions from different...

This chapter first explains the concept of theory and what it does. It then illustrates the formative power of theory by contrasting two very different accounts of international law: the New Haven School, which was elaborated principally by Myres McDougal and Harold Lasswell in Yale Law School; and the pre-perestroika Soviet theory of international...

Legal theory provides conceptions of the sources of international law that differ according to time and place. Section 1 employs MacCormick’s explanation of institutional order to frame the ensuing discussion by arguing that conceptual understandings of law, including international law, are socially constructed. Section 2 starts from Austin’s denia...

Sir Elihu Lauterpacht’s contribution to the doctrine of international law was wide—ranging and incisive, but has been overshadowed by his achievements as a consummate practitioner. This essay attempts to redress the balance by focusing on two areas of his published work—the law of international organisations, and international arbitral and judicial...

This article examines the legal possibilities for State co-operation in the exploitation of living and non-living resoures in the South China Sea pending maritime delimitation between the littoral States. It also critically examines aspects of the July 2016 merits award delivered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Philippines-People's Rep...

In the law of armed conflict, the question of “prolonged occupation” is absent from the governing international instruments, and the notion has been little discussed in academic commentary, but Israel’s High Court has employed it in a number of decisions concerning the occupied Palestinian territory. The “prolonged occupation” of Palestine raises t...

Collective security has been described as the central myth of liberal internationalism and the cornerstone of the international legal order since the creation of the League of Nations. This paper locates the doctrine collective security within its historical and political context. It gives an account of some competing views regarding resort to arme...

In his essay, ‘The International Court of Justice: It is High Time to Restyle the Respected Old Lady’, Professor Cassese argues that in order to maintain its position as the principal international tribunal and be attractive to potential parties, lest it lose business to others, the practice and procedure of the ICJ should be reformed in order to m...

This Handbook represents a big step towards a global history of international law. First, it notes that the Eurocentric story of international law is incomplete since it ignores the violence, ruthlessness, and arrogance which accompanied the dissemination of Western rules, and the destruction of other legal cultures which that dissemination caused....

This paper addresses the question of what territory a future State of Palestine may lay claim to under contemporary international law. It also addresses the question of what is the legal basis for, and integrity of, Israel’s territorial claims. Further, should the Middle East Peace Process fail, the question arises whether Israel could lawfully ret...

International crimes, such as crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, are committed by individuals. However, individuals rarely commit such crimes for their own profit. Instead, such crimes are often caused by collective entities. Notable examples include the 'dirty war' in Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s, the atrocities committed during...

This report was commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Government of South Africa from the Democracy and Governance Unit of the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa. The study was conducted by a team of international law scholars assembled for this purpose. Virginia Tilley served as project leader, editor and co-author...

No abstract available.

The invocation of responsibility for the breach of an international obligation is a matter involving numerous substantive issues. This paper examines only two - the law of diplomatic protection and the process of international adjudication. Both these issues raise particular problems where the obligation in question is a peremptory norm of internat...

Introduction: The function of this chapter is not to evaluate the substantive merits of the customary rules formulated in the Study on customary international humanitarian law applicable in international and non-international armed conflicts. Rather it aims to evaluate the methodology underpinning it – in particular, the approach adopted to the que...

In Mara'abe v. Prime Minister of Israel (September 2005), Israel's High Court addressed the effect which it should give to the International Court's Legal consequences of the construction of a wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory advisory opinion. This had declared the wall illegal but, while affirming that it shared the International Court of Ju...

Jurisphilia/Jurisphobia: U.S. Approaches to International Law Theory - Volume 100 - Iain Scobbie

In international law, the unfolding of the principle of the equality of the litigants — the sovereign equality of the litigant States — has resulted in their ability to nominate a judge to participate in the decision of the dispute by the International Court of Justice on terms of complete formal equality with the regular, or titular, judges. The i...

Israel has justified the construction of its barrier wall as a nonforcible measure taken in selfdefense to protect its citizens against terrorist attacks emanating from the occupied Palestinian territory. This essay addresses two issues. First, was the International Court of Justice’s conclusion in paragraph 139 of the advisory opinion Legal Conseq...

One of the consequences of the method the International Court of Justice employs to draft its pronouncements is that, at times, its reasoning is less candid than one might desire. The Court's advisory opinion on the Legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of 9 July 2004 provides a clear example. To rea...

The Law and Practice of the International Court, 1920–1996, by S. Rosenne, Nijhoff, The Hague, 1997, ISBN 90 411 0264 74, Vols. cxiv + 1960 pp., US $617/UK£ 389/Dfl. 995 Commentaries on World Court Decisions (1987–1996), by P. Bekker (Ed.) Nijhoff, The Hauge, 1998, ISBN 90 411 0558 1, xxi + 301 pp., US$99.50/UK£ 59.50/Dfl. 175. - - Volume 12 Issue...

An Introduction For British international lawyers, Hersch Lauterpacht is still a dominant presence. His work is a benchmark, an intellectual paradigm encapsulating an approach to international law which has been profoundly influential and which continues to exert a sway in British institutions. The thesis of this paper is that Lauterpacht's dischar...

On 22 February 1991, Portugal filed a case against Australia in the Registry of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) instituting proceedings in a dispute concerning “certain activities of Australia with regard to East Timor”. The impetus behind the case was the conclusion of the Timor Gap Treaty between Australia and Indonesia in December 1989....

An International Law Miscellany; RosenneShabtai; Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, 1993, ISBN 0-7923-1742-4; xxii + 843pp.. Clothbound: Dfl.495, £202.50. - Volume 7 Issue 1 - Iain Scobbie

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Cambridge, 1989. In 2 vols.