Lis alibi pendens in International Human Rights Litigation

International law provides a large number of ways to claim human rights in in-ternational institutions on the global as well as on the regional level. There is a general principle of law according towhich one court (or similar body) will not hear a case which is currently pending before another such body (lis alibi pendens). International humanrights bodies, though, employ different approaches to this principle, excluding in some cas-es even all issues, which have ever been dealt with by any international body before. This makes it necessary for applicants and human rights lawyers to be aware of the different approaches in order to establish an effective litigation strategy. This brief provides an overview over this important but often overlooked feature of human rights litigation which, while not having received much academic attention, is of crucial importance to applicants to international human rights bodies.