Traveling Judges
116 American Journal of International Law 477 (2022)
57 Pages Posted: 3 Apr 2022 Last revised: 28 Jul 2022
Date Written: April 1, 2022
Abstract
Around the world, domestic courts focused on commercial disputes hire foreign judges. The practice seems to resemble arbitration, but is also rooted in colonialism. These traveling judges are predominantly retired English judges hired by small, market-dominant jurisdictions, like Hong Kong or Dubai. The judges' identities reveal efforts to harness business preferences for English common law into domestic court systems. While judges aspire to spread the rule of law, local politics may dictate these courts' futures. This Article maps the practice of traveling judges and explores its implications.
Keywords: judges, courts, international commercial courts, private international law, conflict of laws, international commercial arbitration, transnational litigation, post-colonialism
JEL Classification: K10, K12, K33, K41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation