International litigation is a relatively new phenomenon. Only arbitration can boast an important international history. Litigation between States before an established court started early in the present century. International courts where individuals can litigate came only during the second half of this century.

International courts derived their procedural rules from national courts, but little attention has as yet been given to the consequences of the plurality of national and international proceedings. The most obvious drawbacks of this are the losses in time and money for the litigants unavoidable in national and in international litigation. Has the right balance been found between efficiency and fairness?

In the present article I will discuss first the principal burdens laid on litigants and in particular on those who enter into international litigation. Subsequently, I will consider possible improvements. Finally, I shall devote some extra attention to the two kinds of international litigation most frequent in Western Europe: the proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Communities in as far as it adds to national proceedings—this means only the proceedings under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty—and the proceedings before the two institutions in Strasbourg: die European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights. Increasingly, proceedings before these judicial organs are necessary in addition to national court proceedings. They therefore add to the burden of the litigant It may be interesting to compare these two procedures in order to investigate whether they can learn from one another.