The Evolution of International Law and Courts
Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism, Orfeo Fioretos, Tulia G. Falleti, and Adam Sheingate, eds., Oxford University Press (Chapter 36, Forthcoming)
To be reprinted in Orfeo Fioretos, ed., International Politics and Institutions in Time (Oxford University Press, 2016)
iCourts Online Working Paper, No. 3, 2013
26 Pages Posted: 18 Oct 2013 Last revised: 7 Nov 2019
Date Written: September 19, 2014
Abstract
The creation and increased usage of permanent international courts to deal with a broad range of issues is a relatively new phenomenon. The founding dates of international courts suggests that three critical junctures were important in the creation of the contemporary international courts: the Hague Peace conferences and with it the larger movement to regulate inter-state relations through international legal conventions (1899-1927), the post-World War II explosion of international institutions (1945-1952), and the end of the Cold War (1990-2005). Examining the effects of these junctures and gradual changes in the practice of international jurisprudence, this chapter argues that the best way to understand the creation, spread and increased use of ‘new style’ international courts is by paying close attention to the major changes brought about through long-lasting slow processes of international institutional evolution.
Note: This paper has been revised. An earlier version was published in October 2013 with the title International Law and Courts: The Promise of Historical Institutional Analysis.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation