Morning Panel: The Changing Landscape of International Law with Reference to Modern-Style Courts

International Law and by extension, International Courts are being affected by the changing world around us. A dramatic transformation of the International Judiciary has rapidly unfolded before our eyes. During the past few years, the world has witnessed a proliferation of Modern-Style international courts, which represents one of the most remarkable changes in international law. While there previously existed only six international judicial systems at the end of the Cold War, thereafter a rapid global spread of these Modern-Style courts occurred, resulting in the creation of an additional eighteen new courts over the period 1992-2006. Not only do we have a dramatic increase in the number of such courts, but what we are seeing is the creation of a fundamentally different type of international court from the existing Traditional Old-Style international court. The Modern-Style judicial design is quietly reshaping international law and is a modern historical phenomenon. The significance of their design features should not be passed over lightly. While in the past, Traditional Old-Style courts lacked compulsory jurisdiction, these Modern-Style courts now provide for compulsory jurisdiction and allow for non-state actors, like private litigants and community organs, to initiate litigation involving states. These Modern-Style courts now deal with a broad range of issues that previously fell primarily within the national domain. These include economic, human rights and war crime issues. As the substantive nature of international law has changed, the designs of these newer courts have been altered to facilitate their functional objectives. These modern courts are seen as enhancing the durability of international law by transplanting it into domestic politics. Increasingly, states are now more willing to subject themselves to international judicial oversight by self-binding to these modern courts. This modern trend of courts has transformed domestic and international relations and shifted the political balance to policies more in line with international law. These courts are actually influencing and reshaping states behavior. It can now be reasoned that states are increasingly showing a fundamental respect for the rule of law, including international law. The implications for this latest development for national sovereignty are critically important from an international relations standpoint. Modern-Style courts can now in fact, effect legal change by overriding domestic hurdles. These courts have suddenly become political actors, as states do not control them in the same manner as before. Simply put, the creation of these courts involves a sovereignty risk for states