The Judiciary of International Criminal Law: Double Decline and Practical Turn

Abstract

The article investigates the judiciary of international criminal law and its developments over time. Inspired by the sociological tools of Pierre Bourdieu and building on an original dataset, the article analyzes the judiciary of three international criminal courts (ICTY, ICC, ECCC). The focus of the analysis is how the composition of expertise in this judiciary reflects the wider power structure in the field of international criminal law as well as temporal developments in this structure. Responding to and reflecting these transformations, the international criminal law judiciary has been affected by a double decline of positions and prestige, and a turn towards practice as the core expertise of the field. However, despite this turn to practice the accumulation of especially political expertise still structures access to elite positions in the international criminal law judiciary.

Keywords: international criminal judiciary, international criminal law, international criminal courts, judges, sociology