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  3. Studies on International Courts and Tribunals

Studies on International Courts and Tribunals contains theoretical and interdisciplinary scholarship on legal aspectsas well as the legitimacy and effectiveness of international courts and tribunals.

  • General Editors: Andreas Føllesdal, University of Oslo, Geir Ulfstein, University of Oslo

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25 results in Studies on International Courts and Tribunals

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Judging under Constraint
  • The Politics of Deference by International Courts
  • Theresa Squatrito
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    July 2025
    Print publication:
    31 July 2025
  • As international courts have risen in prominence, policymakers, practitioners and scholars observe variation in judicial deference. Sometimes international courts defer, whereby they accept a state's exercise of authority, and other times not. Differences can be seen in case outcomes, legal interpretation and reasoning, and remedial orders. How can we explain variation in deference? This book examines deference by international courts, offering a novel theoretical account. It argues that deference is explained by a court's strategic space, which is structured by formal independence, seen as a dimension of institutional design, and state preferences. An empirical analysis built on original data of the East African Court of Justice, Caribbean Court of Justice, and African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights demonstrates that robust safeguards to independence and politically fragmented memberships lend legitimacy to courts and make collective state resistance infeasible, combining to minimize deference. Persuasive argumentation and public legitimation also enable nondeference.

The Right to Punish
  • Political Authority and International Criminal Justice
  • Luise Müller
  • Published online:
    16 May 2024
    Print publication:
    23 May 2024
  • What gives international courts the authority to punish individuals for international crimes? Through the lens of political philosophy, Luise Müller provides an original perspective on the justification of the authority of international criminal courts and tribunals. She argues that institutions of international criminal justice are permitted to pierce the sovereignty of states in order to punish high-profile politicians for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other mass human rights violations. Their right to punish is justified by virtue of their function to deter mass violations of fundamental human rights. However, to legitimately exercise that right, international criminal justice institutions must fulfil two conditions: first, they must conduct criminal trials with the highest level of fairness; second, they must treat those who are subject to their authority as equals. This last condition can be satisfied by international criminal justice institutions by including procedures of democratic decision-making and democratic accountability.

International Courts versus Non-Compliance Mechanisms
  • Comparative Advantages in Strengthening Treaty Implementation
  • Edited by Christina Voigt, Caroline Foster
  • Published online:
    15 February 2024
    Print publication:
    22 February 2024
  • This book explores the best mechanisms for helping bring about compliance with international treaties. In recent years, many international treaties have included non-compliance mechanisms (NCMs) to facilitate implementation and promote parties' compliance with their obligations. These NCMs exist alongside the formal dispute resolution processes of international courts and tribunals. The authors bring together a wide legal and geographical spectrum of views from different parts of the world representing novel insights into NCMs' contribution to treaty implementation and compliance. The research has cast important light on how procedural innovations may help render NCMs more effective, as well as on the circumstances in which they may be needed, including particularly where nations share common interests, populations are interdependent, and implementation makes significant administrative, regulatory and political demands. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Between Forbearance and Audacity
  • The European Court of Human Rights and the Norm against Torture
  • Ezgi Yildiz
  • Published online:
    02 November 2023
    Print publication:
    16 November 2023
  • When international courts are given sweeping powers, why would they ever refuse to use them? The book explains how and when courts employ strategies for institutional survival and resilience: forbearance and audacity, which help them adjust their sovereignty costs to pre-empt and mitigate backlash and political pushback. By systematically analysing almost 2,300 judgements from the European Court of Human Rights from 1967–2016, Ezgi Yildiz traces how these strategies shaped the norm against torture and inhumane or degrading treatment. With expert interviews and a nuanced combination of social science and legal methods, Yildiz innovatively demonstrates what the norm entails, and when and how its contents changed over time. Exploring issues central to public international law and international relations, this interdisciplinary study makes a timely intervention in the debate on international courts, international norms, and legal change. This book is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The Humanisation of Global Politics
  • International Criminal Law, the Responsibility to Protect, and Drones
  • Sassan Gholiagha
  • Published online:
    25 August 2022
    Print publication:
    01 September 2022
  • This book observes a growing humanisation of global politics relating to the appearance of individual human beings in discourses of global politics. It identifies a mismatch concerning International Relations theory and International Law and the study of the humanisation of global politics. To overcome this mismatch, Sassan Gholiagha proposes a novel theoretical framework based on feminist and constructivist International Relations theory and non-statist theories of International Law scholarship. The book applies this interdisciplinary framework together with an interpretative analytical framework to three cases: the discourse on prosecution, studying international criminal law and the work of the International Criminal Court; the discourse on protection, focusing on the Responsibility to Protect; and the use of drones in targeted killing operations. Drawing on these case studies and the frameworks, the book identifies how individual human beings as participants in global politics position themselves and are positioned by others in these various discourses.

Researching the European Court of Justice
  • Methodological Shifts and Law's Embeddedness
  • Edited by Mikael Rask Madsen, Fernanda Nicola, Antoine Vauchez
  • Published online:
    05 May 2022
    Print publication:
    26 May 2022
  • The book takes stock of the on-going 'methodological turn' in the field of EU law scholarship. Introducing a new generation of scholars of the European Court of Justice from law, history, sociology, political science and linguistics, it provides a set of novel interdisciplinary research strategies and empirical materials for the study of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The twelve case studies included challenge the usual top-down approach to EU law and the CJEU and instead suggest a more localized and fine-grained observation of the socio-legal actors and practices involved in the making of CJEU case-law. Moving beyond mainstream legal scholarship and the established 'grand narratives' of legal integration, the volume provides a more historically-informed and sociologically-grounded account of the EU law's uneven embeddedness in Europe's economies and societies.

Prosecuting Environmental Harm before the International Criminal Court
  • Matthew Gillett
  • Published online:
    05 May 2022
    Print publication:
    19 May 2022
  • The threat of anthropocentric environmental harm grows more pressing each year. Around the world, human activities are devastating the natural environment and contributing to potentially irreversible climate change. This book explores the ways in which the International Criminal Court may effectively prosecute those who cause or contribute to serious environmental destruction. Written by an international lawyer who has prosecuted cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, it provides insights into the procedures, laws, and techniques capable of leading to convictions against those who harm the environment.

Beyond Fragmentation
  • Cross-Fertilization, Cooperation and Competition among International Courts and Tribunals
  • Edited by Chiara Giorgetti, Mark Pollack
  • Published online:
    28 April 2022
    Print publication:
    12 May 2022
  • Beyond Fragmentation assembles a unique team of expert practitioners and leading scholars to explore and advance the study of cross-fertilization among international courts and tribunals. Using an inter-disciplinary and multi-method approach, contributors analyse how international courts and tribunals interact and why it matters in practice. After a thorough review of prior assessments of cross-fertilization and fragmentation, the editors offer a new take on competition and cooperation across courts and tribunals, exploring both substantive and procedural elements as well as the diverse agents of cross fertilization. Contributors engage with procedural issues, identifying a “procedural cross-fertilization pull” and why and how procedure is converging in international courts and tribunals. Case studies on the convergence in the law of the sea and at the European Court of Human Rights provide contrasting experiences of substantive cross-fertilization. The volume also identifies a variety of agents of cross-fertilization, including judges, litigants, counsel, and international organizations.

International Commercial Courts
  • The Future of Transnational Adjudication
  • Edited by Stavros Brekoulakis, Georgios Dimitropoulos
  • Published online:
    14 April 2022
    Print publication:
    21 April 2022
  • The book offers a comprehensive analysis of the role, importance and place of international commercial courts in the field of international adjudication from a comparative perspective. In a time where scholarly and academic debates revolve around the issues of the role of law in the post-globalization era, the new international commercial courts seem to be in the position to bridge concerns regarding diminished sovereignty, on the one hand, and the necessity of globalizing dispute resolution, on the other. International commercial courts thus present themselves as the paradigm for the future of adjudication.

The Legitimacy of Investment Arbitration
  • Empirical Perspectives
  • Edited by Daniel Behn, Ole Kristian Fauchald, Malcolm Langford
  • Published online:
    06 January 2022
    Print publication:
    13 January 2022
  • International investment arbitration remains one of the most controversial areas of globalisation and international law. This book provides a fresh contribution to the debate by adopting a thoroughly empirical approach. Based on new datasets and a range of quantitative, qualitative and computational methods, the contributors interrogate claims and counter-claims about the regime's legitimacy. The result is a nuanced picture about many of the critiques lodged against the regime, whether they be bias in arbitral decision-making, close relationships between law firms and arbitrators, absence of arbitral diversity, and excessive compensation. The book comes at a time when several national and international initiatives are under way to reform international investment arbitration. The authors discuss and analyse how the regime can be reformed and ow a process of legitimation might occur.

International Procedure in Interstate Litigation and Arbitration
  • A Comparative Approach
  • Edited by Eric De Brabandere
  • Published online:
    18 November 2021
    Print publication:
    25 November 2021
  • The settlement of interstate disputes through recourse to courts and tribunals has grown gradually over the years, not only through the creation of new mechanisms to that effect, but also by using existing courts and tribunals. How these different international dispute settlement mechanisms operate in theory and practice is the subject of this comparative analysis by academic and practicing lawyers. The book takes stock of the procedure applicable in various interstate dispute settlement bodies, including international and regional courts and tribunals, and arbitration. This comparative view is essential to a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the various procedural rules and regulations and the practical operation of international litigation. This book is aimed not only at scholars, but also at the courts and tribunals themselves, assisting them in revising their procedures, and at States and organisations developing future international legal mechanisms.

The Application of Teachings by the International Court of Justice
  • Sondre Torp Helmersen
  • Published online:
    04 March 2021
    Print publication:
    04 March 2021
  • How do the judges of the International Court of Justice, the most authoritative court in international law, use teachings when deciding cases? This book is the first book-length examination of how teachings are used in an important international institution. It uses three different methodologies: a traditional legal analysis, an empirical analysis where citations of teachings are counted and interviews with judges and staff. Three main patterns are identified: teachings have generally low weight, but this weight varies between different works and between different judges. The book suggests explanations for the patterns it identifies, in order to contribute to understanding not only when and how teachings are used, but also why, and compares the Court's practice with that of other international courts and tribunals. This study fills a gap in the international legal literature and will be essential reading for scholars and practicing international lawyers.

Adjudicating Trade and Investment Disputes
  • Convergence or Divergence?
  • Edited by Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi, Daniel Behn, Malcolm Langford
  • Published online:
    25 June 2020
    Print publication:
    02 July 2020
  • Recent trends suggest that international economic law may be witnessing a renaissance of convergence – both parallel and intersectional. The adjudicative process also reveals signs of convergence. These diverse claims of convergence are of legal, empirical and normative interest. Yet, convergence discourse also warrants scepticism. This volume contributes to both the general debate on the fragmentation of international law and the narrower discourse concerning the interplay between international trade and investment, focusing on dispute settlement. It moves beyond broad observations or singular case studies to provide an informed and wide-reaching assessment by investigating multiple standards, processes, mechanisms and behaviours. Methodologically, a normative stance is largely eschewed in favour of a range of 'doctrinal,' quantitative and qualitative methods that are used to address the research questions. Furthermore, in determining the extent of convergence or divergence, it is important to recognize that there is no bright line or clear yardstick for determining its nature or degree.

Public Reason and Courts
  • Edited by Silje A. Langvatn, Mattias Kumm, Wojciech Sadurski
  • Published online:
    22 May 2020
    Print publication:
    04 June 2020
  • Public Reason and Courts is an interdisciplinary study of public reason and courts with contributions from leading scholars in legal theory, political philosophy and political science. The book's chapters demonstrate the breadth of ways in which public reason and public justification is currently seen as relevant for adjudicative reasoning and review practices, and includes critical assessments of different ways that the idea of public reason has been applied to courts. It shows that public reason is not just an abstract theoretical concept used by political philosophers, but an idea that spurs new perspectives and normative frameworks also for legal scholars and judges. In particular, the book demonstrates the potential, and the limitations, of the idea of public reason as a source of legitimacy for courts, in a context where many courts face political backlashes and crisis of trust.

International Judicial Review
  • When Should International Courts Intervene?
  • Shai Dothan
  • Published online:
    14 February 2020
    Print publication:
    05 March 2020
  • This book is motivated by a question: when should international courts intervene in domestic affairs? To answer this question thoroughly, the book is broken down into a series of separate inquiries: when is intervention legitimate? When can international courts identify good legal solutions? When will intervention initiate useful processes? When will it lead to good outcomes? These inquiries are answered based on reviewing judgments of international courts, strategic analysis, and empirical findings. The book outlines under which conditions intervention by international courts is recommended and evaluates the implications that international courts have on society.

Legitimacy of Unseen Actors in International Adjudication
  • Edited by Freya Baetens
  • Published online:
    19 August 2019
    Print publication:
    22 August 2019
  • International courts and tribunals differ in their institutional composition and functions, but a shared characteristic is their reliance on the contribution of individuals other than the judicial decision-makers themselves. Such 'unseen actors' may take the form of registrars and legal officers, but also non-lawyers such as translators and scientific experts. Unseen actors are vital to the functioning of international adjudication, exerting varying levels of influence on judicial processes and outcomes. The opaqueness of their roles, combined with the significance of judicial decisions for the parties involved as well as a wider range of stakeholders, raises questions about unseen actors' impact on the legitimacy of international dispute settlement. This book aims to answer such legitimacy questions and identify 'best practices' through a multifaceted enquiry into common connections and patterns in the institutional composition and daily practice of international courts and tribunals.

Human Rights Norms in ‘Other' International Courts
  • Edited by Martin Scheinin
  • Published online:
    22 July 2019
    Print publication:
    25 July 2019
  • This unique book examines the role and impact of human rights norms in international courts other than human rights courts. It covers a whole range of courts and jurisdictions, looking at the practice of prominent international courts, such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, as well as various fora of economic adjudication, including the World Trade Organisation, regional integration organisations in Europe and Africa, and investment arbitration. The book systematically explores the role of human rights norms at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, thereby providing an insight into the future evolution of environmental law towards judicial enforcement at the international level. Within each jurisdiction under study, the respective authors, who all are experts within their fields, address the role of different categories of human rights, as well as the range of available modes of operation of human rights norms.

International Judicial Practice on the Environment
  • Questions of Legitimacy
  • Edited by Christina Voigt
  • Published online:
    15 April 2019
    Print publication:
    18 April 2019
  • More and more environmental cases are being heard and decided by international courts and tribunals which lack special environmental competence. This situation raises fundamental questions of legitimacy of the environmental practice of international courts. This book addresses inter alia questions of who has legal standing to bring an environmental claim before an international court, on which legal norms is the case decided and whether judges have the necessary expertise to adjudicate environmental cases of often complex nature. It analyses which challenges international courts face, which possibilities they have and which advances international judicial practice has been able to make in protecting the environment. Through the prism of legitimacy important insights emerge as to whether international courts and tribunals are fit for addressing some of the most pressing global challenges of our time.

International Courts and Domestic Politics
  • Edited by Marlene Wind
  • Published online:
    23 June 2018
    Print publication:
    12 July 2018
  • International law in national courts, and among politicians and citizens, does not always have the desired effect at the domestic level. This volume is a genuinely interdisciplinary analysis of international law and courts, examining a wide range of courts and judicial bodies, including human rights treaty bodies, and their impact and shortcomings. By employing social science methodology combined with classical case studies, leading lawyers and political scientists move the study of courts within international law to an entirely new level. The essays question the view that legal docmatics will be enough to understand the increasingly complex world we are living in and demonstrate the potential benefits of adopting a much broader outlook drawing on empirical legal research. This volume will have great appeal to anyone interested in the effects - rather than just the processes and structures - of international law and courts.

The Performance of International Courts and Tribunals
  • Edited by Theresa Squatrito, Oran R. Young, Andreas Follesdal, Geir Ulfstein
  • Published online:
    29 March 2018
    Print publication:
    05 April 2018
  • International courts and tribunals now operate globally and in several world regions, playing significant roles in international law and global governance. However, these courts vary significantly in terms of their practices, procedures, and the outcomes they produce. Why do some international courts perform better than others? Which factors affect the outcome of these courts and tribunals? The Performance of International Courts and Tribunals is an interdisciplinary study featuring approaches, methods and authorship from law and political science, which proposes the concept of performance to describe the processes and outcomes of international courts. It develops a framework for evaluating and explaining performance by offering a broad comparative analysis of international courts, covering several world regions and the areas of trade, investment, the environment, human rights and criminal law, and offers interdisciplinary accounts to explain how and why international court performance varies.

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