Questions of Jurisdiction and Admissibility before International Courts

Yuval Shany is the Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law in the Law Faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a member of the UN Human Rights Committee.

• Introduction; Part I. The Concept of Jurisdiction and Admissibility in International Adjudication: 1. Jurisdiction as a policy tool; 2. Jurisdiction as delegated authority; 3. Jurisdiction as a power constraint on international courts; 4. The role of admissibility in the exercise of judicial power; 5. The conflicting interests of international judges reviewing jurisdiction and admissibility; Part II. The Law Governing Jurisdictional Decisions of International Courts: 6. Jurisdiction in abstracto and in concreto; 7. Distinguishing jurisdiction from substantive law; 8. International court decisions on jurisdiction as a form of category-based case selection; 9. Individual case-by-case selection; Part III. Questions of Admissibility before International Courts: 10. The taxonomical challenge; 11. Admissibility as a policy tool; Conclusion.