JUDICIALIZATION OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: DO INTERNATIONAL COURTS MATTER?

Abstract

The present article aims at reviewing the debate on the impact which international courtsand quasi-judicial bodies have on the contemporary international relations. This impact is now aptly describedin terms of judicialization of international relations. Building upon data from the previously publishedstudies, the article identifies both legal and extralegal factors which stand behind the process of judicializationof international relations. On the other hand, while there is no doubt this process has reachedunprecedented extent, its degree is not equal in the contemporary world. The recourse to judicial settlementof international disputes is frequent indeed in Europe, however, this is not necessarily true of the other regions.Moreover, it seems that even in the era of judicialization of international relations, the willingness to bringdisputes before international courts and quasi-judicial bodies is overwhelmingly, albeit not exclusively, reservedto several distinct categories of disputes, especially those which stem from international economic relations.Purely political disputes are judicially settled with much bigger caution. Therefore, it seems correctto conclude that international courts and quasi-judicial bodies play non-negligible role in the contemporaryinternational relations but, for the time being, they do not definitely constitute world government, as it issometimes suggested.