Judicial Independence as an Indicator of International Court Effectiveness: A Goal-Based Approach

Abstract

The chapter seeks to contribute to the debate on the relationship between judicial independence and international court effectiveness by applying to it a model for international judicial effectiveness developed by the author elsewhere. In doing so, I hope to illustrate some of the problems attendant to the “broad brush” position taken by writers who have claimed a correlation between high levels of judicial independence and low levels of effectiveness. I posit that the proper question we should be discussing is not whether judicial independence is generally conducive to international court effectiveness (a question that assumes a linear relationship between the two variables); instead, we should ask questions such as which international courts are better served by judicial independence? what level of actual independence should courts strive to attain? what image of independence should they seek to project?

Keywords: International courts, international tribunals, judicial independence, judicial effectiveness, international criminal courts, international criminal tribunal for Yugoslavia, international criminal tribunal for Rwanda, judicial functions