International Law in Domestic Courts

The central premise of this volume is that the relationship of law and politics in international law varies depending on the sites where the relationship unfolds. In this chapter, we analyze that premise in the creation, interpretation, recognition, implementation and modification of international norms in domestic courts. We will explain, however, that beyond these ‘stages of governance,’ a decisive factor in explaining the engagement of domestic courts with international law is the nature of the legal rule at issue. Specifically, our analysis demonstrates that the willingness of domestic courts to view an international issue as one of law, not politics, varies in important ways depending on whether they are being asked to apply a horizontal (state-to-state) rule, a vertical (state-to private party) rule, or a transnational (private-to-private) rule