UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Law
⋄
Jurisdiction and Admissibility in International Law:
TWAIL, Climate Change and Environmental
Justice
Assignment 2 — 2026
⋄
Module Code: MIL5901
Module Name: Public International Law
Assignment No.: Assignment 2
Due Date: 15 September 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for MIL5901
at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | MIL5901 Jurisdiction, Admissibility & TWAIL
Question 1: Jurisdiction and Admissibility in International Law
1.1 Introduction
Jurisdiction and admissibility are preliminary questions that decide whether an international
tribunal may deal with a dispute before the merits are considered.1 Jurisdiction asks whether
the tribunal has legal authority over the parties, the subject matter and the relevant period,
while admissibility asks whether a claim that already falls within that authority is suitable
for determination.2 This distinction matters because an international court cannot manufac-
ture jurisdiction merely because a dispute is serious, urgent or politically important. In my
view, jurisdiction concerns the existence and outer limits of judicial power, while admissibil-
ity concerns whether that existing power ought to be exercised in the particular case before
the tribunal. The prescribed material separates access, admissibility and jurisdiction as dis-
tinct preliminary requirements, which supports treating them as related but legally separate
enquiries rather than as interchangeable procedural labels.
1.2 Jurisdiction as the Existence of Legal Authority
International tribunals possess only limited jurisdiction because their authority derives from
founding instruments and, in contentious interstate cases, ordinarily depends on the consent
of the states involved.3 At the International Court of Justice, Article 36 of the Statute allows
consent to be expressed through a special agreement between the parties, a compromis-
sory clause in a treaty, or a declaration accepting compulsory jurisdiction under Article 36(2),
commonly called the optional clause.4 Consent-based jurisdiction reflects the horizontal,
state-centred structure of the international legal order: unlike a domestic court, the Court can-
not assume authority over a state that has not agreed, in one form or another, to be bound by
its decisions.
The Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions decision established that a legal dispute, meaning
a disagreement on a point of law or fact, a conflict of legal views or of interests between two
parties, must exist before judicial settlement can properly occur.5 Without an identifiable
1
Yuval Shany, Questions of Jurisdiction and Admissibility before International Courts (Cambridge University
Press 2016) 3.
2
Chester Brown, A Common Law of International Adjudication (Oxford University Press 2007) 52.
3
James Crawford, Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law (9th edn, Oxford University Press 2019) 692.
4
Statute of the International Court of Justice, art 36.
5
Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions (Greece v United Kingdom) PCIJ Rep Series A No 2, 11.
Page 1 of 12
College of Law
⋄
Jurisdiction and Admissibility in International Law:
TWAIL, Climate Change and Environmental
Justice
Assignment 2 — 2026
⋄
Module Code: MIL5901
Module Name: Public International Law
Assignment No.: Assignment 2
Due Date: 15 September 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for MIL5901
at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | MIL5901 Jurisdiction, Admissibility & TWAIL
Question 1: Jurisdiction and Admissibility in International Law
1.1 Introduction
Jurisdiction and admissibility are preliminary questions that decide whether an international
tribunal may deal with a dispute before the merits are considered.1 Jurisdiction asks whether
the tribunal has legal authority over the parties, the subject matter and the relevant period,
while admissibility asks whether a claim that already falls within that authority is suitable
for determination.2 This distinction matters because an international court cannot manufac-
ture jurisdiction merely because a dispute is serious, urgent or politically important. In my
view, jurisdiction concerns the existence and outer limits of judicial power, while admissibil-
ity concerns whether that existing power ought to be exercised in the particular case before
the tribunal. The prescribed material separates access, admissibility and jurisdiction as dis-
tinct preliminary requirements, which supports treating them as related but legally separate
enquiries rather than as interchangeable procedural labels.
1.2 Jurisdiction as the Existence of Legal Authority
International tribunals possess only limited jurisdiction because their authority derives from
founding instruments and, in contentious interstate cases, ordinarily depends on the consent
of the states involved.3 At the International Court of Justice, Article 36 of the Statute allows
consent to be expressed through a special agreement between the parties, a compromis-
sory clause in a treaty, or a declaration accepting compulsory jurisdiction under Article 36(2),
commonly called the optional clause.4 Consent-based jurisdiction reflects the horizontal,
state-centred structure of the international legal order: unlike a domestic court, the Court can-
not assume authority over a state that has not agreed, in one form or another, to be bound by
its decisions.
The Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions decision established that a legal dispute, meaning
a disagreement on a point of law or fact, a conflict of legal views or of interests between two
parties, must exist before judicial settlement can properly occur.5 Without an identifiable
1
Yuval Shany, Questions of Jurisdiction and Admissibility before International Courts (Cambridge University
Press 2016) 3.
2
Chester Brown, A Common Law of International Adjudication (Oxford University Press 2007) 52.
3
James Crawford, Brownlie’s Principles of Public International Law (9th edn, Oxford University Press 2019) 692.
4
Statute of the International Court of Justice, art 36.
5
Mavrommatis Palestine Concessions (Greece v United Kingdom) PCIJ Rep Series A No 2, 11.
Page 1 of 12
