Methods and forms of resolution of interstate disputes

The article is devoted to the search for an answer to the question about the criteria for determining the methods and forms of protection of violated or contested rights in interstate legal conflicts. The problem of dispute resolution procedures in which sovereign states and international entities act as parties is currently particularly acute. International cooperation is acquiring the broadest forms, which results not only in the improvement of the positions of states in certain areas, but also in the growth in the number of interstate and international conflicts. Based on the analysis of the domestic Russian system for the protection of rights, freedoms and legitimate interests, it was concluded that there are two alternative methods of protection: public law, based on the present position of the judicial authority over the disputing parties; and private law, in the form of arbitration. The criterion for their application in the domestic sphere is the legal nature of the disputed material relationship and the ratio of the legal statuses of the disputing subjects: “vertical” disputed legal relations allow only public legal protection, private law, “horizontal” legal relations allow arbitration, subject to the consent of both parties. It is shown that interstate legal relations in a similar way can be private law, that is, based on the equality of the member states participating in them, and “vertical”, legal relations of the coordination type, in which sovereign states renounce part of their sovereignty and voluntarily submit to the jurisdiction of a certain international judicial body. The conclusion is formulated that in interstate conflicts both methods of protection retain their significance and are applied on the basis of the criterion of the correlation of the legal statuses of the persons (states) involved in the case. It is shown that the arbitration of interstate disputes (international arbitration) retains all the features and properties of the arbitration of “internal” cases and should be applied solely on the basis of the will of the states - parties to the disputed material legal relationship.