LibGuides: Public International Law: Judicial Decisions

Judicial decisions as noted in the ICJ Statute include decisions of domestic courts on relevant issues in addition to international courts and tribunals. All of these decisions may be reported in national reporters, reporters for individual courts, or in subject-specific reporters. Subject-specific reporters may focus on a particular area of the law, such as human rights or the environment, may aggregate cases on international law generally, or may be historically focused. This resource is to help you find the text of cases. You should also consult secondary sources such as law reviews and books that may review large areas of case law.

This page contains:

List of international courts with official websites and reporters.
Subject-specific reporters.
Books with helpful judicial materials.

You may also want to consult yearbooks/digests that contain judicial information by providing summaries or reprinting cases.

The Manual on International Courts and Tribunals by Ruth Mackenzie; Cesare Romano; Philippe Sands; Yuval Shany
Call Number: KZ 6250 .M36 2010
ISBN: 9780199545278
Publication Date: 2010-05-20
The dramatic rise in the number of international courts and tribunals and the expansion of their legal powers has been one of the most significant developments in international law of the late 20th century. The emergence of an international judiciary provided international law with a strongerthan ever law enforcement apparatus, and facilitated the transformation of many aspects of international relations from being power-based to being law-based.The first edition of the Manual on International Courts and Tribunals, published in 1999, was the first book to survey systematically this new institutional landscape, by describing in an accessible and uniformly structured manner the legal powers and operating procedures of all major internationaljudicial and quasi-judicial bodies. In doing so, it laid the groundwork for comparative study and research of the law and practice of international courts and tribunals - an emerging field of international legal research, which has already spurred a series of publications, conferences and academiccourses. This second edition updates the first edition by describing the many legal changes that have taken place in the last decade, including important reforms in the laws and procedures of many international courts and tribunals, relevant developments in their increasingly rich jurisprudence and thecreation of new judicial fora. Moreover, it assesses the overall record of these judicial bodies. The data and legal analysis offered in the book provide both practitioners and academics with an important basis of knowledge that will help them better understand the details of internationaladjudication and its context.

International Courts

If the official website of the court is the only place to access materials, the name of the court is linked directly to the website.

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

All materials (judgments, orders, agreements, etc.) are on the official website of the ICJ.
If having the official reporter is important, use Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders. Older documents on the official websites are from the reporter, and cases are available in print to 2013 (KZ 214 .I58).

Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) (precursor to the ICJ)

The documents of this court were published by Series, each one containing different types of documents.
- Series A, B, and A/B: decisions
- Series C: written pleadings, records of public hearings, and correspondence
- Series D: documents on the organization of the Court
- Series E: the Court's Yearbooks
- Series F: catalog of publications
Electronic access via the ICJ official website and HeinOnline.
Library provides access in print.

Court of Justice of the European Union a.k.a. European Court of Justice (ECJ)

The easiest way to search for EU case law is on EUR-Lex, the official website for EU legal information. There are a wide variety of search options, and it's an all around great resource for researching EU law. It only contains materials from 1973-present. Cases that have been officially published in the reporter have PDF documents on EUR-Lex.
To access materials prior to 1973, you must use:
- HeinOnline, which provides access from 1954-2012. This should continue to be updated as the reporters are published. You can still search using HeinOnline, but it is more difficult to navigate than EUR-Lex.
- The reporter is in print in the Library covering 1954-2003. We also have official French-language decisions from 1954-1973. (KJE 924.5 .C622)
The official reporter
- Pre-1990 title: Reports of Cases Before the Court of Justice of the European Communities (E.C.R.)
- Post-1990 title: Reports of Cases Beore the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance (E.C.R.).

European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)

The easiest way to search for ECtHR case-law is to use the Court's HUDOC website. Here you can search by year, Convention article, countries involved, the chamber that heard the case, etc. 1955-present.
The Library has print versions of cases (not from the official reporter) from 1960-1999 in print (KJC 5135 .A5 E971).
If the official reporter is important, then you can access copies from 1999-2013 on the official website.
Many cases that are considered "important" are available through a commercial (non-official) publisher, European Human Rights Reports. In print (KJC 5132.A52 E97). Contains a combination of case decisions and summaries.
These sources that cover the ECtHR will also includes decisions from the now-defunct European Commission on Human Rights that operated in conjunction with the Court until 1998.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

All materials are available online through the official reporter, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

All materials are available online from the Court's official website
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
Note that the official reporter, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Decisions and Judgments, is not available online or in the Library.

International Tribunal for Law of the Sea (ITLOS)

International Criminal Court (ICC)

Other International Tribunals

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
- Cases on the official website of the ICTY
- You can access public court materials through the ICTY Court Records database. You must create an account, but it is free to use.
UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (UNMIT)
- Official website provides case decisions and other materials for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and ICTY
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
- Summaries of cases
- Court documents
Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL)

African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights

African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

Iran-US Claims Tribunal

Use the official website to search all materials. You will have to create an account to search off documents, but it is free to use.
The official reporter, Iran-United States Claims Tribunal Reports , is available:
- Print (KZ 238 .I7 I72a)
- Westlaw

Subject-Specific Reporters

International Law Reports (1922-present). In print (KZ 199 .I58).
- Comes with an index, table of treaties, and table of cases to make print research very easy.
- Previous title: Annual Digest of Public International Law (1922-1951)
- "[T]he only publication in the world wholly devoted to the regular and systematic reporting in English of decisions of international courts and arbitrators as well as judgments of national courts."
International Litigation Procedure
- Available on Westlaw.
- Decisions for nation and EU courts relating to transnational litigation. States covered: UK, Canada, United States, Australia, select European states.
Reports of International Arbitral Awards (RIAA)
- 1920-present; limited to those decisions rendered between States (excludes private parties).
- In print (KZ 203 .R46)
- Available online through the UN's RIAA website or via HeinOnline.
Common Market Law Reports
- Print. JKE 925.5 .C64. 1962-1973, 1978-present.
- Westlaw. (1972-present).
- Covers all courts geographically located within the EU's common market.
American International Law Cases (1898-1979). In print (KZ 238 .A2 .A54 1971).
British International Law Cases (to 1970). In print (KZ 638 .A2 B75).

World Trials Library - HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
This collection includes more than 3,500 trials including complete sets of American State Trials, Howell's State Trials, and the Nuremburg Trials. It also includes famous trials from Philadelphia's Jenkins Law Library, Cornell University, and the University of Missouri-Columbia's trials collections. It contains trial transcripts, critical court documents, and trial-related resources such as monographs which analyze and debate the decisions of famous trials, as well as biographies of many of the greatest trial lawyers in history.

Books

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights by Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen; Amaya Ubeda de Torres; Rosalind Greenstein
Call Number: KDZ 579 .I58 B874 2011
ISBN: 9780199588787
Publication Date: 2011-05-26
This work offers the first systematic analysis of the case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to be published in the English language. The book provides a comprehensive collation and commentary on the jurisprudence of the Court, situating it in the broader context of international human rights law, drawing comparisons in particular with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. It features coverage of both procedural and substantive human rights law. Comprehensively indexed and cross-referenced, the book offers, for the first time in English, ready access to the jurisprudence of one of the major regional human rights courts. It will be of use to the judiciary, human rights practitioners, human rights activists, government institutions, academics, and students alike.
The Landmark Rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the Rights of the Child by Mónica Feria Tinta
Call Number: KDZ 136 .M54 F47 2008
ISBN: 9789004165137
Publication Date: 2008-06-19
This is the first comprehensive treatment of the topic of the Rights of the Child as reflected in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It reviews all decisions of the Inter-American Court relating to the Rights of the Child and analyses the principles held therein making them available to practitioners, academics and students of this area of the law.
Provisional Measures in the Case Law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights by Clara Burbano Herrera
Call Number: KDZ 579 .I5 B87 2010
ISBN: 9789400000377
Publication Date: 2010-04-15
Provisional measures are instruments used by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Their purpose is to prevent irreparable harm to the rights and freedoms ensured, under the American Convention on Human Rights, of persons who are in a situation of extreme gravity and urgency. The measures, ordered ex officio or at the request of a party, result in protection offered by the respondent State to alleged victims. This book analyzes the complete case-law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights with regard to provisional measures. It deals with the jurisdiction of the Court - ratione personae, materiae, temporis, and loci - to order such measures and the admissibility questions respectively. This is followed by an analysis of the evidentiary issues, the processing of the request for provisional measures, the delay within which interim measures are usually adopted by the Court, and the duration of the measures. Finally, the legal nature of the provisional measures and the legal consequences in case of incompliance by States are examined, as well as the compliance rate and the factors that may be considered the main obstacles to some measures being effective.
Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals by Andre Klip (Editor); Göran Sluiter (Editor)
Call Number: KZ 6310 .A5 1999
ISBN: 9789050950763
Publication Date: 1999-06-01
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights by Rachel Murray (Editor); Malcolm D. Evans (Editor)
Call Number: JC 599 .A36 A36 2002
ISBN: 0521802075
Publication Date: 2002-05-16
The African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights came into force in 1986, and is in many ways unique, lacking as it does a precedent elsewhere. However, little scholarship exists analysing it as an operational system in practice. Collaborators to this volume include a range of experts, many of whom have been actively involved in the implementation of the Charter - commissioners, NGOs and academics. The volume, then, is more than just a descriptive or theoretical work, providing instead a detailed evaluation of the Charter as a mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights in Africa. Chapters cover the Charter's reporting system, the interpretation of different rights by the Commission, the prospects for the African Court on Human and People's Rights and the role of NGOs. This authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date book will interest lawyers acting for government and non-governmental organizations, as well as academics and postgraduates.
The Contribution of the Rwanda Tribunal to the Development of International Law by L. J. van den Herik
Call Number: KZ 1201 .A12 H47 2005
ISBN: 900414580X
Publication Date: 2005-04-29
This book offers a thorough analysis of the establishment and the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Furthermore, it gives insight into how the Rwanda Tribunal has operated in practice during its first ten years and it examines the case law on the three major international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The author provides a balanced judgement of the contribution of the Rwanda Tribunal towards the development of international criminal law, emphasizing its strong points, in particular the case law on genocide, but also exposing its weaknesses in terms of legal reasoning. The author also demonstrates the inherent limits of the Rwanda Tribunal due to the political and social situation within Rwanda and due to its own Statute.
Global War Crimes Tribunal Collection by Global Law Association ; [edited by J. Oppenheim & W. van der Wolf]
Call Number: KZ 1201 .A12 G56
Publication Date: 1997-2013
Covers case materials from all war crimes tribunals, from Nuremberg to the present; organized by court and sitting, it includes over 150 volumes.

Copyright

All original content copyright 2022 Loyola University New Orleans College of Law Library. This guide may be used for educational purposes, as long as proper credit is given. This guide may not be sold. Requests to republish or adapt a guide should be directed to the Library Director. Proper credit includes the statement: Written by, or adapted from, Loyola University New Orleans Law Library.

Public International Law: Judicial Decisions

This page contains:

List of international courts with official websites and reporters.

Subject-specific reporters.

Books with helpful judicial materials.

You may also want to consult yearbooks/digests that contain judicial information by providing summaries or reprinting cases.

International Courts

Subject-Specific Reporters

Books

Copyright