¹ Note that we follow a broad understanding of the term “court”. It covers arbitral tribunals as well as other institutions fulfilling a court-like function such as the WTO panels and Appellate Body even if they change in composition and do not formally decide a case. See also Project on International Courts and Tribunals, available at: http://www.pict-pcti.org, (adopting an equally broad understanding of “court”); cf. Cesare Romano, The Proliferation of International Judicial Bodies: The Pieces of the Puzzle, 31 NYU Journal of International Law & Politics 709 (1999).Google Scholar

² The creation and stabilization of normative expectations is considered by many, otherwise diverging, contemporary theories as the core function of law, see Jürgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms 427 (1997); Luhmann, Niklas, Das Recht der Gesellschaft 151 (1995).Google Scholar

³ Note that Art. 38 ICJ-Statute refers to judicial decisions as “subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law”, we discuss this qualification infra section II.C, notes 62-64.Google Scholar

⁴ Cf. Shany, Yuval, No Longer a Weak Department of Power? Reflections on the Emergence of a New International Judiciary, 20 EJIL 73 (2009).Google Scholar

⁵ It follows the study on “The Exercise of Public Authority by International Organizations”, Special Issue, 9 German Law Journal (2008); The Exercise of Public Authority by International Institutions: Advancing International Institutional law (Armin von Bogdandy, Rüdiger Wolfrum, Jochen von Bernstorff, Philipp Dann & Matthias Goldmann eds, 2010). See further Ingo Venzke, On Words and Deeds. How the Practice of Interpretation Develops International Norms (unpublished doctoral thesis, 2010).Google Scholar

⁶ See respectively the contributions in this issue by Stephan Schill, System-Building in Investment Treaty Arbitration and Lawmaking; Ingo Venzke, Making General Exceptions: The Spell of Precedents in Developing Article XX GATT into Standards for Domestic Regulatory Policy; Michael Ioannidis, A Procedural Approach to the Legitimacy of International Adjudication: Developing Standards of Participation in WTO Law; Thomas Kleinlein, Judicial Lawmaking by Judicial Restraint? The Potential of Balancing in International Economic Law; Christina Binder, The Prohibition of Amnesties by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Milan Kuhli & Klaus Günther, Judicial Lawmaking, Discourse Theory, and the ICTY on Belligerent Reprisals; Karin Oellers-Frahm, Expanding the Competence to Issue Provisional Measures – Strengthening the International Judicial Function; Markus Fyrnys, Expanding Competences by Judicial Lawmaking: The Pilot Judgment Procedure of the European Court of Human Rights; Marc Jacob, Precedents: Lawmaking Through International Adjudication. Google Scholar

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⁹ Dolzer, Rudolf & Schreuer, Christoph, Principles of International Investment Law 18 (2008).Google Scholar

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¹⁴ Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion, 22 July 2010, available at: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/141/15987.pdf; Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, 9 July 2004, available at: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf. See Karin Oellers-Frahm, Lawmaking through Advisory Opinions?, in this issue. For pointed commentary on the direction of impact of each opinion, see Robert Howse & Ruti Teitel, Delphic Dictum: How Has the ICJ Contributed to the Global Rule of Law by its Ruling on Kosovo?, 11 German Law Journal 841 (2010); Agora: ICJ Advisory Opinion on Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 99 AJIL 1 (2005).Google Scholar

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²³ Brandom argues that “there is nothing more to the concept of the legal concepts being applied that the content they acquire through a tradition of such decisions, that the principles that emerge from this process are appropriately thought of as ‘judge-made law'”. Robert B. Brandom, Some Pragmatist Themes in Hegel's Idealism: Negotiation and Administration in Hegel's Account of the Structure and Content of Conceptual Norms, 7 European Journal of Philosophy 164, 180 (1999). A similar argument has been developed before by Friedrich Müller, Richterrecht – rechtstheoretisch formuliert, in: Richterliche Rechtsfortbildung. Erscheinungsformen, Auftrag und Grenzen, 65, 78 (Hochschullehrer der Juristischen Fakultät der Universität Heidelberg eds, 1986).Google Scholar

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³² Binder (note 6).Google Scholar

³³ Oellers-Frahm (note 6).Google Scholar

³⁴ Schill (note 6). Cf. Jacob (note 6) (showing how arguing with precedents is quite natural and appealing in judicial reasoning, not least because it has a legitimating effect).Google Scholar

³⁵ Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court), 14 October 2004, 2 BvR1481/04, 111 Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts 307, for an English translation, see http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rs20041014_2bvr148104en.html, margin number 68 (referring to a domestic court's duty to take a decision of the ECHR into account).Google Scholar

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³⁷ Dispute Regarding Navigational and Related Rights (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua), 13 July 2009, para. 64. Cf. Julian Arato, Subsequent Practice and Evolutive Interpretation: Techniques of Treaty Interpretation over Time and Their Diverse Consequences, 9 The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals 443 (2010).Google Scholar

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³⁹ This distinction is held up in the use of different terms in German-speaking legal science whereas in the world of common law the innovative judge frequently simply figures as lawmaker. South Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U.S. 205, 221 (1917) (Justice Holmes, dissenting); Lord Reid, The Judge as Law Maker, 12 Journal of the Society of Public Teachers of Law 22 (1972).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Oellers-Frahm (note 14), section D.III.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Lauterpacht, Hersch, The Development of International Law by the International Court 155-223 (1958) (speaking of “judicial legislation”).Google Scholar

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⁴⁵ Cf. Barnett, Michael & Duvall, Raymond, Power in Global Governance, in: Power in Global Governance, 1 (Michael Barnett & Raymond Duvall eds, 2005) (offering a nuanced conception of power that suits present purposes).Google Scholar

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⁴⁸ Reputational costs are relevant even for such weighty and mighty actors as the United States. In a rational choice perspective, see Andrew Guzman, How International Law Works 71 (2008).Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Art. 46 (2) European Convention on Human Rights.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Art. 193 et seq. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Art. 22 Dispute Settlement Understanding.Google Scholar

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⁵⁷ This is a reference to Art. 11 DSU. See, Appellate Body Report, United States – Final Anti-Dumping Measures on Stainless Steel from Mexico, WT/DS344/AB/R, 30 April 2008, para. 162 (stating that “We are deeply concerned about the Panel's decision to depart from well-established Appellate Body jurisprudence clarifying the interpretation of the same legal issues. The Panel's approach has serious implications for the proper functioning of the WTO dispute settlement system”).Google Scholar

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⁶⁹ Bogdandy, Armin von, Gubernative Rechtsetzung 35 (2000). We do not think that international courts can draw sufficient legitimacy from the fact that they check the power exercised by other institutions. Such argument is made by Sabino Cassese, When Legal Orders Collide: The Role of Courts 122-124 (2010).Google Scholar

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⁷⁵ See respectively the contributions by Binder (note 6), Venzke (note 6), Schill (note 6), Oellers-Frahm (note 14). Compare this with the ambivalent track record explained by Petersen (note 6).Google Scholar

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⁸⁵ Paulus (note 82), 210.Google Scholar