Taking Stock: Abuse of Process within the International Court of Justice

Abstract

The doctrine of abuse of process, as a subsidiary concept of the principle of abuse of rights, is well established as a general principle of law and regularly invoked by member states in argument at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Nonetheless, the ICJ has yet to uphold an argument founded upon the abuse of process. After conducting a general survey of the development of the doctrine of abuse of process around the globe, this article argues that the ICJ should seize upon the current global trend in which international courts and tribunals have sought to utilise the abuse of process doctrine as a feature of their inherent case management powers, and more readily make use of the doctrine to ensure that the integrity of proceedings is preserved before the ICJ.