Background and Overview
Judges are, in many respects, the lynchpin between the national and the international levels. It is judges who often end up applying international norms to the national level, or taking developments or ideas from other legal systems into account when evaluating to a concrete case before them.
The problems contemporary society faces are of a global nature and thus require a global response. Judges from supreme courts across the globe have proven themselves willing and capable of delivering such a response. It is not uncommon to find explicit and occasionally comprehensive discussions of foreign laws, decisions and practices alongside an analysis utilizing more traditional sources of domestic law. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly common for judges to participate in transnational and international conferences, workshops and exchanges. Proficiency with information technology has created new means of obtaining and disseminating legal information. In short: judicial networks are rapidly becoming a cornerstone of today’s judicial universe.
Prof. Wissink and his team of researchers explore similar questions insofar as they relate to European Union Law and lower courts in the Netherlands and Germany. A process of exploring the position of highest courts as they perform this role in the wider context of an increasingly internationalized setting began in 2006.
Research Development
On 30 June and 1 July 2006, HiiL held its first workshop on the theme entitled ‘Supreme Courts in an Internationalised World: Challenges for the Trias Politica and the Coherency of Law?’. This event was followed by a colloquium on the legitimacy of decisions of highest courts, which was organised together with the Faculties of Law of the Universities of Rotterdam, Leiden, and Antwerp, and took place in January 2007. These exploratory meetings paved the way for further research, culminating in HiiL’s 2008 Law of the Future conference on ‘The Changing Role of Highest Courts in an Internationalising World’, held on 23 and 24 October at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
The conference was a prime example of a judicial network in action, with over 25 speakers and 120 participants. Over the course of two days, the conference hosted many of the world’s most senior Supreme Court Justices (including Justice Albie Sachs from the South African Constitutional Court, Justice Michael Kirby from the High Court of Australia and Lord Bingham from the House of Lords), as well as several leading academics in the field, including Prof. Jeremy Waldron, Prof. Patrick Glenn and Prof. Mitchel Lasser.
The discussions during the conference were facilitated by the HiiL-published comprehensive Inventory Report, entitled ‘The Changing Role of Highest Courts in an Internationalising World - Inventory and Bibliography’. A brief Conference Report was made available shortly after the conference. An edited volume of the final versions of the conference presentations will be published by T.M.C. Asser Press/Cambridge University Press in late 2009.
Contact Information
Sam Muller
Director
sam.muller@hiil.org
+ 31 (0)70 3494405
