ABSTRACT
One of the most important topics in public international law is the relationship with the rules of municipal law. Although litigation may take place between individual states before the International Court of Justice, the number of such cases will be limited. Many cases will come before municipal courts giving rise to issues of international law.2 Indeed, in some areas of public international law, nearly all the relevant case law derives from the municipal courts. Examples might be questions such as whether the courts of state A had jurisdiction to try an individual for a particular offence3 or whether X is immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of state B,4 or whether the courts of state C should recognise certain individuals as comprising the government of state D.5
