"The Emergence of a Doctrine of de jure horizontal stare decisis at the Caribbean Court of Justice: Fragmentation or Pluralism of International Law?"

Abstract

While the doctrine of stare decisis has in general received a great deal of scholarly attention over the years, one aspect of the norm which has been the subject of little, if any, doctrinal inquiry, however, is the emergence of a doctrine of de jure horizontal stare decisis at the international level, most notably by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), in the exercise of its original jurisdiction. By reference to the CCJs rapidly evolving jurisprudence, this article argues that, at the conceptual level, this development is unique to international law to the extent that the court’s reliance on precedents is pursuant to a treaty-mandate as opposed to a judicial strategy, but not at all very different in practice from the de facto approach to precedent which characterizes the jurisprudence of other international courts and tribunals. The question of whether the CCJs de jure approach to the treatment of precedents contributes in any way to the fragmentation or pluralism of international law is also addressed by this article.