Reflections on the Present Prospects of International Adjudication

Abstract

Is the pessimism at present exhibited by certain scholars with regard to the current prospects of international law completely reasonable? More particularly, is it really justifiable to speak of a deterioration in the juridical methods of settling disputes between states? However disappointing the course of events may have been during the last ten years, it seems that certain evaluations, inspired by nostalgia for the past, to some extent lose sight of factual conditions which have always, in different degrees, limited the role of law in the solution of international conflicts. It is useful to recall such conditions at a time when excessive discouragement has succeeded unreasonable expectations.