Paper's abstract

Geneviève Bastid Burdeau, The law-making power of international case law to the test of the dispersion of courts
The law-making power of international case law, traditionally limited by the low number of cases and curbed by the sovereignty of States, has however imposed itself as a way to fill in the silence of custom and treaties on several legal points. For a decade, it is facing a totally new situation, characterised by an explosion in international litigations involving States, in particular the role of the WTO, international criminal courts and the commonplace use of the arbitration of the ICSID International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. To what extent do the recent transformations of the functioning of the scattered and heterogeneous international courts contribute to the law-making power of case law?

Key Words : International law, State, sovereignty, treaty, international litigation, ICSID, case law
t. 50, 2007 : p. 305-313