PAIL Institute Publications

PAIL Institute Monograph Series

Reviving the World Court

Author(s): Falk, Richard A.

Hardcover - 197 pages (1984)
ISBN: 0-8139-1084-6; LC: 85-31451

Price: US $50.00

About This Publication

Reviving the World Court evaluates the record of the World Court since World War II and explains why the path of international adjudication has not been more frequently taken. It is particularly concerned with the consequences of the clash of ideologies and values, and its approach takes account of a changing global setting.

Richard Falk argues that to gain the confidence of the various countries in the world, the Court must more fully reflect viewpoints associated with Marxist outlooks on law and non-Western legal traditions. He contends that the decisions of the Court have been overwhelmingly influenced by Anglo-American and West European customs and he criticizes judges from Third World and socialist countries for their failure to reflect their own distinctive orientations more effectively.

This book enables readers to understand some of the reasons why the Woirld Court has had such limited acceptance and what could be done to make the institution more effective in international life. This argument takes on additional relevance in light of Nicaragua's recourse to the Court to assess its legal claims against the United States in relation to civil strife there and the decision by the United States Government to boycott these proceedings.

About The Author(s)

Richard A. Falk is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practise, Princeton University, a prolific writer, speaker and activist of world affairs and the author or co-author of more than 20 books.

Reviews

Thomas Franck, New York University Law Review
There are two superb cornerstones to Reviving the World Court. Chapter 1, 'The World Court Assessed as Dream and Fact,' and Chapter 7, 'Can the World Court Succeed?,' stand like the gigantic feet of Ozymandias: monuments to the incisive, vigorous, and questing intellectual style of the author. The intervening chapters look good in comparison to most other memoirs of 'cases and causes I have fought.' They are partially autobiographical — filled with telling, sometimes amusing, observations about judges, tactics, arguments, options, outcomes, and choices of style made by various jurists in the course of litigating the South-West Africa and Iran Hostage cases, as well as the Certain Expenses Advisory Opinion.

Burns H. Weston
First-rate. A fascinating, provocative study that challenges narrow, national approaches to the International Court of Justice. This book offers a creative plan for the cosmopolitan reform of the World Court. It is an important book that deserves the widest possible audience.

Oscar Schachter
A refreshingly original analysis of the constraints and potential of international adjudication, this study will stimulate both specialists and concerned citizens to reflect on the educational role an international court may play in a pluralist world of self-interested states.

Availability

Reviving the World Court is available from:

William S. Hein & Co., Inc.
1285 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14209

(716) 882-2600
(800) 828-7571 (toll free)
(716) 883-8100 (fax)
e-mail: mail@wshein.com
website: http://www.wshein.com/
Hein Item #: 306510

Reviving the World Court is also available from Amazon.com.

Table of Contents

	Editor's Foreword	vii
	Preface	ix
I.	The World Court Assessed as Dream and Fact	1
II.	The World Court and the Big Case — With Special Reference to South West Africa/Namibia	25
III.	The Issue of Judicial Style in the Big Case	61
IV.	The Problematic Outcome in the Big Case Against South Africa	100
V.	The Iran Hostage Case: Marginalized Recourse (Jack Sanderson)	137
VI.	A Note on Certain Expenses	157
VII.	Can the World Court Succeed?	173
	Index	195