The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication

The post Cold War proliferation of international adjudicatory bodies and international adjudication has had dramatic effects on both international law and politics, greatly affecting international relations, particularly economic relations, the enforcement of human rights, and the criminal pursuit of perpetrators of mass atrocities. International courts and tribunals have become, in some respects, the lynchpin of the modern international legal system. The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication uniquely brings together analysis of the legal, philosophical, ethical and political considerations brought about by these bodies. It provides an original and comprehensive understanding of the various forms of international adjudication. A series of cross-cutting chapters overview key issues in the field, both theoretical and practical, providing scholars, students, and practitioners with a detailed understanding of important legal and political influences within the international adjudicative process.

The Handbook is divided into six parts. The first part provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies, from the nineteenth century to the present, highlighting the dynamics driving the multiplication of international adjudicative bodies and their uneven expansion. The second analyzes the main families of international adjudicative bodies, providing a detailed study of state-to-state, criminal, human rights, regional economic, and administrative courts and tribunals, as well as arbitral tribunals and international compensation bodies. The third part lays out the theoretical approaches to international adjudication, including from political science, sociology, philosophy, ethics, and the perspectives of developing countries. The fourth part examines some contemporary issues in international adjudication, including the behavior, role, and effectiveness of international judges, the political constraints that restrict their function, as well as the making of international law by international courts and tribunals, the relationship between international and domestic adjudicators, the election and selection of judges, the development of judicial ethical standards, and the financing of international courts. The fifth part examines key actors in international adjudication, including international judges, legal counsels, international prosecutors, and registrars. Finally, the sixth provides an overview of some selected legal and procedural issues facing international adjudication, such as evidence, fact-finding and experts, jurisdiction and admissibility, the role of third parties, inherent powers, and remedies.

The Handbook will be an invaluable and thought-provoking resource for scholars and students of international law and political science, and to legal practitioners at international courts and tribunals.

Cesare Romano, Professor of Law, Loyola Law School,Karen Alter, Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University,Yuval Shany, Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in Public International Law, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Cesare Romano is Professor of Law at Loyola Law School Los Angeles and one of the Directors of the Project on International Courts and Tribunals. He holds degrees in three different disciplines (political science, international relations and law) from three countries (Italy, Switzerland and the United States). His expertise is in public international law, and in particular dispute settlement, international environmental law, international human rights and international criminal law. However, it is probably in the field international courts and tribunals where he has made the greatest contribution to date, publishing numerous articles and books.

Karen J. Alter is Professor of Political Science and Law at Northwestern University, specializing in the international politics of international organizations and international law. She is author of The European Court's Political Power (Oxford University Press, 2009), Establishing the Supremacy of European Law (Oxford University Press, 2001) and numerous articles and book chapters on the politics of international courts and international law. She has published in the American Journal of International Law, International Organization, Comparative Political Studies, Perspectives on Politics, European Journal of International Relations, European Law Journal, Law and Contemporary Problems, Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Journal of International Law and Politics, and European Union Politics.

Professor Yuval Shany is the Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law at the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also serves currently as the academic director of the Minerva Center for Human Rights, a director in the International Law Forum at the Hebrew University, and the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (PICT) and a member of the steering committee of the DOMAC project (assessing the impact of international courts on domestic criminal procedures in mass atrocity cases). Shany has degrees in law from the Hebrew University (LL.B, 1995 cum laude), New York University (LL.M., 1997), and the University of London (Ph.D., 2001) and he has published a number of books and articles on international courts and arbitration tribunals and other international law issues such as international human rights and international humanitarian law.