The Place of Human Rights Courts and International Criminal Courts in the International System

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the place of supranational human rights courts and international criminal courts in the general context of public international law. The author analyses whether we can speak of a genuine ‘international order’ based on the principles of the 1945 Charter, or whether, on the contrary, we should resign ourselves to a ‘fragmentation of international law’. After having underlined the problems related to the proliferation of judicial bodies, the author envisages a reconstruction of an international system: on the one hand, a justice system affording civil redress for damage suffered by victims by holding states responsible, in the manner of the European Court of Human Rights, and on the other hand, a justice system based on criminal responsibility of the perpetrators of international crimes, with the victims having no other place in the proceedings than as witnesses.