Highest Courts

As national courts seek to uphold the laws of their land, they are increasingly influenced by developments beyond their country’s borders. This has a profound effect on the role of the highest national courts, which are responsible for the development of law, adjudication and maintaining coherency within their legal system.

Globalisation and modern technology have enabled ordinary citizens to gather information from all corners of the world. Also judges have been able to learn how their peers in other countries apply and interpret the law. In addition, national judges increasingly have to deal with international agreements. This creates pressure on courts to avoid interpreting the same provision from such an international instrument differently in different countries.

This phenomenon is seen as a new pattern of relationship among States. This pattern was not following the classical form of political, institutional or diplomatic relations (classical State Relations), but an international communication based on a legal interconnection escaping or avoiding the national political and institutional controls. The triggers of this new pattern were the judges and, in particular, the ones of the pinnacle Courts. The phenomenon was implied the notion of “dialogue between judges”.

The research process is based on different methodological approaches:

• Understanding the type hermeneutic operations based on foreign examples.
• Analysing the question of Politics versus Judiciary.
• Figuring out the scenarios in terms of new dynamics of internationalisation of law based on the horizontal interactions between the pinnacle Courts on national legal systems.

Research Projects

• The Changing Role of Highest Courts in an Internationalising World
• National Judges as European Union Judges

See also

• Highest Courts Network
• Publications
• Conferences and Seminars

Contact Information

Andrea Lollini | Theme Coordinator Highest Courts
+31 70 349 4405  | andrea.lollini@hiil.org

'As our research is conducted with a network of scholars from so many countries, we can draw conclusions based on a great number of cases. Thus, the quality of feedback to judges and other practitioners is bound to be of great value!' Andrea Lollini