The ICJ and Multi-Forum Litigation Strategy

If a court’s judgments are merely hortatory, can it still be classified as a legal dispute settlement body? Or a court that has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of its users? Does this render the law upon which this court relies, lesser law? In international law such questions are conspicuously pertinent today. As multilateralism is falling apart, humanity has put -not all, but at least- some of its hopes on international courts to resolve contemporary disputes. And the International Court of Justice -a pivotal judicial institution in the international legal order- is increasingly instrumentalized as part of multi-forum litigation strategies when it deals with the main political issues of the day. Voulgaris’ book “The ICJ and Multi-forum litigation strategy” sheds light to the questions posed above. In particular, the book draws inferences from legal and political sciences to assess ICJ authority when crises make their way to it as part of such a litigation strategy.

Professor Nikolaos Voulgaris is a Fellow for the Centre for International Governance and Dispute Resolution (CIGAD) at The Dickson Poon School of Law.

Nikolaos Voulgaris is a professor of international law at the European Law & Governance School and an adjunct professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Specialised in general public international law, his interests include the law of international responsibility, the sources and subjects of international law and international dispute resolution. His latest research explores the limits of international courts as dispute resolution mechanisms. His monograph entitled The ICJ and Multi-forum Litigation Strategy was published with Brill in 2025.

He studied law in Athens (LLB & LLM, Athens University) and London (LLM & PhD, KCL). He has taught both postgraduate and undergraduate courses at KCL and Athens. He conducted research for the Freedom Rights Project and Prof. Guglielmo Verdirame. Also, he has worked as a lawyer at the law office of Prof. Stavros Tsakyrakis, for the European Court of Human Rights and the Greek National Committee for Human Rights. He is the author of Allocating International Responsibility between International Organizations and Member States (Hart, 2019) a monograph based on his doctoral dissertation.

Rosana Garciandia is Co-Director of the Centre for International Governance and Dispute Resolution (CIGAD) and Senior Lecturer in Public International Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London.

She conducts research on the international law response to human rights abuses, including torture, racial discrimination, labour exploitation and all contemporary forms of slavery. The focus of her work is currently on intersectionality in international human rights law, on inter-state communications before UN treaty bodies, and on the potential of collective trends in international dispute resolution. She is also a Research Leader on human and labour rights at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and a Fellow of the Macrocrimes Center of the University of Ferrara.

Rosana has held positions in various international organisations. She served as Secretary General of the European Law Institute in Vienna. She has also worked at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and at the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. She has also developed research for the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and for the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights (EP DROI Subcommittee).

Dr Garciandia joined The Dickson Poon School of Law in 2018 after having acquired extensive experience working at those international organisations in the areas of human rights, EU law and international anti-corruption law. She was previously Lecturer in Public International Law and EU Law at University of Murcia in her native Spain. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of Navarra.

Dr Maria Varaki is a lecturer in international law at the Department of War Studies at King's College London. Before moving to London she held research positions with the Erik Castren Institute of International Law and Human Rights in Helsinki and the Law Faculty of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She was also an Assistant Professor in International Law at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. Currently she is a Research Associate in 3 Generations of Digital Human Rights, ERC project, 2023-2028, Hebrew University, Faculty of Law.

Christian J. Tams is Professor of Public International Law at King’s College London and President of the European Society of International Law. Questions of binding dispute resolution are a focus of Christian’s research and teaching, and he is one of the editors of the Oxford Commentary on the Statute of the ICJ. An associate member of 11 King’s Bench Walk, Christian regularly represents States and other actors in international litigation, including in proceedings before the ICJ.

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