Grounds for the Application of International Rules of Interpretation in National Courts

Interpretive practices between legal systems and domestic courts vary widely. This inevitably will affect the interpretation of rules of international law by domestic courts. The question is whether there are good grounds for national courts to limit divergence of interpretations, by relying on international principles of interpretation. This chapter explores three possible grounds on the basis of which domestic courts can resort to an application of international rules of interpretation: the effective performance of treaty obligations, the international quality of domesticated norms, and the external authority of decisions of domestic courts. The chapter argues that, depending on the context, each of these grounds may offer a justification for relying on international rules of interpretation, but that competing considerations may pull in diverging directions, and that the international rules of treaty interpretation do not necessarily preclude this

From global city to Olympic city: The transnational legal journey of London 2012

The Olympic Games incarnate the global. They bring together, physically and virtually, athletes and fans from all around the world. It’s hard to think of any other social gathering (besides the FIFA World Cup) that exemplifies better a universal event experienced (in very different ways) by humanity in its entirety. And yet, the Games remain as well a profoundly local affair proceeding on a narrow portion of a city’s territory. How does the intimate connection between global and local translate legally in the context of the Olympic Games? What are the legal mechanisms that define the development of the Olympic city? How do they affect the agency of local citizens and their democratic sovereignty? This chapter aims to identify, describe and assess the transnational legal process that frames the transformation that the host city undergoes in order to host the Games and will situate it in the broader research agenda on cities and international law harboured by this handbook