Unlawful Laws and the Authority of International Tribunals

International disputes often involve issues of both national and international law. Not infrequently, challenges are raised to the legitimacy of the national law invoked. Attention is then immediately switched to international law, to see whether it may have a corrective effect, by operation of such things as international minimum standards or international public policy. The main point of this lecture is to say: "Not so fast!" National laws themselves contain corrective norms, and they may be formidable. An international court or tribunal charged with applying a national law has both the duty and the authority to apply it as a whole. If it does so, there may be no need to determine whether international law trumps national law. In this way a confrontation of legal orders is avoided