Public Interest Litigation in International Law (Routledge Research in International Law)

In a world of growing public interest in global matters and criticisms of multilateralism to adequately address them, the role of international courts and tribunals in the resolution of disputes is shifting. A central aspect of this shift is whether and how international courts and tribunals can be used to resolve such disputes in the public interest. This practice, referred to as public interest litigation, is the object of this collection, which identifies some recent developments, trends and prospects in this growing practice. Its aim is to assess the degree to which the bilateral design of international courts and tribunals can adapt to the shift towards a public approach to international litigation. Engaging with various fields where public interest litigation exists – such as human rights, climate change, global health and criminal law – it identifies recent developments, trends and prospects in this practice. The selected pieces provide a flavour of the types of issues that have arisen before international judicial bodies – for instance, the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, international arbitral tribunals, regional human rights bodies or criminal courts – and explores issues that may arise in the future

Justine Bendel is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her work focuses broadly on enforcement issues in international environmental and climate change law, with a particular emphasis on the impacts of international law on forests. Her monograph is entitled Litigating the Environment: Process and Procedure before International Courts and Tribunals (2023).

Yusra Suedi is a Lecturer in International Law at the University of Manchester, UK. Prior to this, she was Fellow in Law at London School of Economics (LSE) Law School, UK. She holds a doctorate in Public International Law from the University of Geneva, Switzerland for her manuscript entitled The Individual in the Law and Practice of the International Court of Justice. She has worked for the United Nations Office in Geneva, the International Law Commission, the Institut Du Droit International, the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal and the International Court of Justice.