International Procedural Rights, Domestic Legal Systems and the International Rule of Law

Abstract

This paper analyses how international procedural rights such as the right of access to a court and the right to an effective remedy relate and contribute to the international rule of law. The focus of this contribution lies on domestic fora. By contrasting the functionality of international and domestic procedural rights, it extrapolates specificities of international procedural rights and propositions about their contribution to the international rule of law. The paper argues that, in particular due to the absence of a centralised enforcement mechanism at the international level, international procedural rights are of crucial value for the international rule of law. Their core contribution is that they mobilise domestic legal systems to the benefit of the international rule of law. If domestic courts and non-judicial institutions can be seen as the ‘missing link’ in the international rule of law, international procedural rights are one of the legal tools to determine how strong this link can and must be.

Keywords: International Rule of Law, Procedural Rights, Human Rights, International Individual Rights, Access to Justice, Interplay between International Law and Domestic Legal Systems