Regional Courts Research Articles

How Effective Is the Judiciary? Evidence on Correlation Between Cases’ Characteristics and Probability of Appeal

This research proposes a way to assess judicial effectiveness, proxied by the probability of appeal of a decision. Focusing on the example of regional courts in Poland, it classifies cases based on their most accurate topic, creating a topic model on judgements. This classification is used to provide descriptive evidence on cases’ characteristics and their correlation with a higher or lower probability of appeal. The obtained results indicate that topic-based groups that are more heterogeneous in the legal departments of the associated cases are more likely to be appealed.

The Obligation to Cooperate to Protect Against Serious Breaches of the European and American Conventions on Human Rights

Abstract This paper discusses the obligation of States to co-operate as a duty that stems from two different areas of international law. First, States are obliged to co-operate under the law of State responsibility, the aim of co-operation within this framework being to bring to an end serious breaches of peremptory norms. The second area is international human rights law and, in particular, the European (ECHR) and the American Conventions on Human Rights (ACHR), as these instruments have been interpreted by the respective regional human rights courts to encompass a procedural obligation for States to co-operate with a view to protect human rights. The paper asks whether the obligation to cooperate, as constructed by the two regional human rights courts, has any overlap with the obligation to cooperate under the law of State responsibility, and, if yes, whether it can and does cross-fertilise the interpretation of the latter. The analysis of the relevant case law provides two affirmative answers. First, there is common space between the obligations to cooperate under the law of State responsibility, the ECHR, and the ACHR. Second, analysis also identifies certain features in the relevant human rights case law that enrich the obligation to co-operate under the law of State responsibility. These features are the effectiveness in the protection of the most fundamental norms and interpretation of the duty to cooperate through systemic integration. Systemic integration is necessary to concretise the conduct States are expected to develop as the obligation to cooperate refers to a rather open list of relevant rules of international law applicable to that State.

Progress and Regress in the Interpretation of the Concept of Essential Security Interests in International and Regional Courts

Abstract This article explores the concept of ‘essential security interests’ (esi) within the framework of international and regional law, specifically focusing on its historical evolution and current interpretations. The esi exception, which allows states to prioritize their security concerns over international obligations, has gained increased relevance since the turn of the millennium. This study provides a detailed analysis of how the International Court of Justice (icj) and the European Court of Justice (ecj) interpret esi clauses, highlighting the convergence and divergence between international and regional jurisprudence. By examining both self-judging and non-self-judging esi clauses, the article assesses their reviewability and the implications for legal consistency and state sovereignty. The analysis aims to clarify the practical application of esi exceptions and offer insights into potential areas for improvement in their judicial review.

Prize court politics and regional ordering in the Caribbean

Abstract This article analyzes the practices and politics of Caribbean prize courts at the turn of the nineteenth century, in order to better understand the dynamics of these peculiar legal institutions on the ground in one of the most volatile inter-imperial maritime spaces of the period. The focus is on the daily operation of the courts, the relationship between different regional courts (within and between empires), and, importantly, on their role within wider Caribbean networks. The article asks how knowledge about these courts was shared within the trans- imperial networks of the region. Court shopping was a common practice and claimants would often go out of their way to take captures or cases to specific courts, either within a single empire or even in a different imperial jurisdiction, but how did potential claimants come to be so familiar with the characteristics of individual administrations and magistrates? And how did they disseminate this information? The story of Caribbean prize courts is the story of order-making at different, sometimes clashing, levels. While the legal regime around prizes can be seen as an ordering mechanism for interactions between empires, the Caribbean saw its own order-building project driven less by decision-­makers in faraway metropoles and more by individual actors within the region, equally likely to exploit, support, or circumvent the legal mechanisms set up by officials. These regional groups were especially likely to act against the prize regime when it posed a challenge to the sanctity of their private property, be it goods or enslaved.

Special Collegium Activities on Certain Categories of Cases (1934–1938)

Special collegiums operated in 1934–1938 as part of the Supreme Court of the USSR, the supreme courts of the Union republics, regional and regional courts, and the main courts of the autonomous republics. Their creation can be considered as an experiment in transferring cases of state crimes from non-curial to judicial authorities. The special collegiums activities were provided by the NKVD, special departments of the prosecutor’s office and the sector of special courts of the People’s Commissariat of Justice of the USSR. Their personnel consisted of former NKVD officers and nominees of local justice authorities. All this makes it possible to characterize them as bodies of special justice. The most notable cases considered by special collegiums were cases of anti-Soviet agitation (Article 58–10 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), cases under the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR dated August 07, 1932 («The Law on Three Spikelets») and cases of banditry (Article 59-3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). All of them were considered within the framework of the campaign justice model. It was characterized by an expansion and narrowing of the interpretation of the norms of substantive law. This allowed ordinary crimes and administrative offenses to be considered as state crimes. The penalties were regulated. This led to unstable judicial practice. The methods of «simplification», i.e., deviations from the norms of substantive and procedural law, were actively used. Obviously, by the middle of 1938, the experiment of depriving non-judicial bodies of judicial functions was considered unsuccessful and the special collegiums were liquidated.

Informality and Relations in International Judicial Appointments: Evidence from Sub-regional Courts in Africa

Abstract Informality in international judicial selection practices has been acknowledged but rarely systematically researched. Described as “design innovations” that are hard to grasp, national judicial appointments to international courts (IC s), even in the most established democracies, are permeated by opacity and secretiveness that remains puzzling to researchers and the legal complex alike. This article presents evidence from three African sub-regional courts to reify the informal dimension of international judicial appointments. Drawing on qualitative research that employs two country case studies, Uganda and Malawi, we demonstrate how the particularly thin formal selection rules leave much leverage to informalities at various levels of governance. Through interviews and judicial biographical data, we reconstruct judicial appointment practices and their dynamics to account for relevant informalities and relations that shed light on the selection of judges to IC s. We argue that appointment practices are less ad hoc or arbitrary than they often appear but mirror the states’ commitment to regional integration, political assessment of the respective regional organisation, and perceptions of the courts’ relevance and ambitions in relation to the political appointers and selectors. Moreover, we raise new concerns about the risk of more silent and subtle backlash against bold regional courts.

Gender Persecution and the Sarah O. Case: Strengthening the Rome Statute through Domestic Trials

Abstract The crime of gender persecution holds great potential for the adequate prosecution of gender-based violence in international criminal law. Codified in Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute as a crime against humanity, it provides an opportunity to condemn gender-specific violence beyond sexual acts. However, the icc has so far only made limited use of this possibility and has yet to convict a defendant under Article 7(1)(h) on the basis of gender. In contrast, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court recently became the first court or tribunal to explicitly convict a person for gender persecution. The Sarah O. case has the potential to set an important precedent for the prosecution of this crime. Importantly, it may help to highlight the challenges of prosecuting gender persecution and to address them at the national and international level.

Abortion from an International Perspective after the Dobbs case

The American Supreme Court of Justice recently overturned the precedents that legalized abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. This article analyzes whether this decision is consistent with the current status of abortion as established in International Human Rights Law (IHRL), according to its classical sources (treaties and customary law). Since no treaty includes a right to abortion and there is no consistent practice among states to legalize abortion, various soft law instruments are discussed to clarify the consensus on this issue. These instruments include the agreements reached at the World Population Conferences, the Fourth World Conference on Women of 1995, and the pronouncements and case law of human rights mechanisms (treaty monitoring bodies and regional courts). This analysis shows that the arguments and conclusions in the Dobbs case are consistent with what states have agreed to internationally on the matter.

THE PROCESS OF CONSTITUTIONALIZATION OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL: THE CHALLENGES OF THE EUROPEAN COURT AND THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

This article discusses the process of constitutionalization of international law, based on an examination of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). Through a bibliographical review, the objectives were to present the idea of ​​constitutionalization at the international level, based on an examination of the precedents of regional protection systems; then, the aim was to analyze the consolidation of the use of the constitutional perspective by the ECHR and the IACHR in their judgments. As a hypothesis, it is believed that regional protection systems develop the constitutional approach to international law through their judgments on human rights. Filling gaps in conventional international law, resorting to custom to prove its existence and the possibility of exercising “conventionality control” in cases related to human rights violations are some of the ways in which certain situations are subject to law and its jurisdiction. As a result, it was found that the hypothesis was partially confirmed. By examining the cases, it is clear that each regional system for the protection of human rights has a specific characteristic, within which it must act for the constitutional development of international law. In this regard, it can be inferred from the examination of the cases of the ECtHR and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that the constitutionalization of international law can be constructed from both bottom-up and top-down perspectives, using the sources of international law – customs, the case law of the regional courts themselves and the general principles of law – to fill the gaps in the international legal system.

Inequality threat increases laypeople's, but not judges', acceptance of algorithmic decision making in court.

Algorithmic decision making (ADM) takes on increasingly complex tasks in the criminal justice system. Whereas new developments in machine learning could help to improve the quality of judicial decisions, there are legal and ethical concerns that thwart the widespread use of algorithms. Against the backdrop of current efforts to promote the digitization of the German judicial system, this research investigates motivational factors (pragmatic motives, fairness concerns, and self-image-related considerations) that drive or impede the acceptance of ADM in court. We tested two hypotheses: (1) Perceived threat of inequality in legal judgments increases ADM acceptance, and (2) experts (judges) are more skeptical toward technological innovation than novices (general population). We conducted a preregistered experiment with 298 participants from the German general population and 267 judges at regional courts in Bavaria to study how inequality threat (vs. control) relates to ADM acceptance in court, usage intentions, and attitudes. In partial support of the first prediction, inequality threat increased ADM acceptance, effect size d = 0.24, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.01, 0.47], and usage intentions (d = 0.23, 95% CI [0.00, 0.46]) of laypeople. Unexpectedly, however, this was not the case for experts. Moreover, ADM attitudes remained unaffected by the experimental manipulation in both groups. As predicted, judges held more negative attitudes toward ADM than the general population (d = -0.71, 95% CI [-0.88, -0.54]). Exploratory analysis suggested that generalized attitudes emerged as the strongest predictor of judges' intentions to use ADM in their own court proceedings. These findings elucidate the motivational forces that drive algorithm aversion and acceptance in a criminal justice context and inform the ongoing debate about perceptions of fairness in human-computer interaction. Implications for judicial praxis and the regulation of ADM in the German legal framework are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Interpreting the Paris Agreement in its Normative Environment

Abstract International and regional courts are increasingly being asked to determine the rights and responsibilities of states in relation to climate harm. The context for such requests is that the 2015 Paris Agreement, comprising primarily procedural obligations and obligations of conduct, and premised on national determination, appears by itself radically insufficient to resolve the existential climate crisis the planet is facing. This article explores if this is indeed the case and argues that the 2015 Paris Agreement must be interpreted in its ‘normative environment’. The ‘normative environment’ includes the customary international law principle of harm prevention, other treaties, including human rights ones, and a set of principles of varying legal status but considerable operational relevance and guidance. This article examines specific obligations from the 2015 Paris Agreement and seeks to concretize and strengthen them based on this interpretative approach. While such strengthened obligations might yet be insufficient to decisively resolve the climate crisis, these nevertheless reflect a richer account of international legal resolve relating to climate change—one that is premised on an understanding of international law as a seamless web of inter-locking obligations rather than of treaties functioning as atomistic reflections of state consent in that area.

Mapping the Cross-Border Influence of Regional and International Reproductive Rights Cases

Abstract International and regional human rights mechanisms are essential tools for ensuring access to justice for human rights violations and advancing measures of non-repetition, such as domestic law and policy reform. Scholarship on the impacts of these mechanisms have largely centred on the resulting domestic law and policy reform in the countries at issue in these cases and the resulting normative standards human rights bodies have established. The cross-fertilization of these cases among other international and regional human rights mechanisms and domestic courts remains an important but underexplored aspect of how such cases influence progress towards the realization of human rights. Through the lens of four landmark cases on sexual and reproductive health and rights, this article examines the influence of these cases in jurisprudence from across the globe, demonstrating how such decisions have reverberated across borders. These rippling effects of strategic litigation constitute an important impact that should be taken into account when evaluating the influence and efficacy of these mechanisms.

The impact of environmental court construction on the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure

This study evaluates the relationship between establishing environmental courts and corporate environmental information disclosure quality. We use panel data from 28,718 Chinese listed companies between 2008 and 2022 and investigate whether the quality of environmental information disclosure by companies improves owing to the establishment of regional environmental courts. The results indicate that the quality of environmental information disclosure increase significantly after establishing environmental courts in the region. Factors such as corporate green culture, public environmental awareness, and local environmental regulatory strength play intermediary roles in this relationship. In the heterogeneous analysis, we find that the effect of environmental court construction on improving the quality of environmental information disclosure is more significant for highly polluting industries and state-owned enterprises. Additionally, environmental courts are more effective in enhancing the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure in regions with the low level of legalization and the high level of environmental information disclosure. Our research contributes to environmental court construction and corporate environmental information disclosure literature and provides decision-making references for businesses and governments.

Civil Society and International Accountability

Abstract The role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in pursuing accountability for atrocity crimes through international law is more diverse than ever before, and the breadth of CSO activities and the modalities of their engagement with international justice institutions has been overlooked in the scholarship to date. This article explores various CSO approaches to advancing accountability, including at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), International Criminal Court (ICC), investigative mechanisms (for Syria, Myanmar, and Iraq), and selected United Nations treaty bodies and regional human rights courts. Civil society actors take on many roles, including as advocates, documenters, analysts, victims’ representatives, and international law experts. While often described as indispensable to international justice efforts, the relationship between civil society and formal justice mechanisms remains novel and can feel incongruous with traditional and ostensibly independent and impartial legal processes. This is evolving as CSOs enter traditional international justice spaces in diverse ways. This article provides a framework to understand the modalities of CSO engagement with international legal processes, as well as critical challenges.

Competing framings of abortion in the Northern Ireland Assembly and Westminster: the long and winding road to abortion decriminalisation

ABSTRACT Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019. This historic change was introduced by the UK Parliament following lengthy activist campaigns, national and international inquiries, and regional and national court cases. This paper focuses on two legislatures, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the UK Parliament, examining the role played by each in how decriminalisation was achieved. Tracing efforts dating back to the introduction of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, the analysis charts how the often-hostile approach to reform changed, prior to, and following, decriminalisation. In contrast, the UK Parliament's treatment of the abortion issue in Northern Ireland over the same period veered from ignorance to apathy to engagement. The paper examines the external and internal influences in each legislature, illustrating the different discourses within each. In the Northern Ireland Assembly, we trace how the debate on abortion was shaped around the question of abortion, whereas in the UK Parliament, the issue of devolution dominated. This paper offers a unique comparative analysis from the position of involved campaigners, of the multi-jurisdictional efforts to bring about historic legal change which moved Northern Ireland from having one of the most restricted legal frameworks globally on abortion to one of the most liberal.

Legal Conditions for the Implementation of the "Silencing Weapons by 2020" Program of the African Union Agenda for the Period Up to 2063

Silencing weapons by 2020 is an ambitious project of the African Union contained in the ‘Agenda 2063 the Africa we want’. According to aspiration 4 (32) of that Agenda, the achievement of that project requires that mechanisms for peaceful prevention and resolution of conflicts should be functional at all levels. Therefore, that article doesn’t name those mechanisms. In the first aspect of his reflection, the author analyzes those mechanisms as being the peace and security architecture, which is the main mechanism designed to prevent and manage conflicts in Africa, as well as to strengthen peace and to which the African Union (AU) adhered, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as well as Regional mechanisms (RM); and the African Union Court of Justice and Human Rights, which is a merger of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) and the Court of Justice of the African Union(CJAU) and is the primary judicial agency of the African Union and the first regional court with international criminal jurisdiction. Further in his analysis, the author explains that the failure to meet the silence the guns by 2020 program and the postponement until 2030 has been a consequence of the non-achievement of the mechanisms mentioned in aspiration 4(32). The author ends up his analysis on the conclusion according to which if those mechanisms are not put in place there is a high risk that the second deadline scheduled for 2030, will also not be met. He therefore calls for the complete implementation of the ASP and for the ratification of the CJDHUA Treaty. If this is not possible, to demonstrate realism by setting the deadline for silence the guns in a period after the implementation of the mechanisms provided for in aspiration 4 of Agenda 2063.

The Establishment of a Regional Court in Southeast Asia to Combat Environmental Issues

Abstract Regional arrangements for dispute resolution are sanctioned under Article 52 of the United Nations Charter. Following therefrom, the regions of Europe, America and Africa have set up regional courts for the resolution of all kinds of disputes between respective Member States, including for human rights issues. In the Southeast Asian region, despite the setting up of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on 8 August 1967, there has yet to be any concrete form of a binding dispute resolution mechanism. In recent times, environmental issues have been given due recognition by their elevation onto the human rights platform in many international conventions, and also crafted into the constitutions of many countries around the world. Against this background, this article explores the viability of establishing a regional court for Southeast Asia. The research finds that the establishment of a regional court in Southeast Asia is necessary, not only to tackle transboundary pollution issues between Member States, but also as a forum of last resort by individuals or groups within Member States which have yet to recognise environmental rights as human rights.

The Adjudication of Slavery Crimes against the Yazidi by German Courts Evolving Jurisprudence and the Need for Rectifying Legal Amendments in German Law

This article examines the interpretation and application of relevant provisions of the German Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL) and the German Criminal Code (GCC) to the slave trade and slavery conduct committed against the Yazidi by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, IS or Da'esh). Specifically, the article takes an intersectional approach to reviewing in detail the cases of Sarah O (Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf) and Taha Al J (Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt) while drawing observations from other German cases concerning slavery crimes against the Yazidi. These were in the majority, if against German nationals, conducted under the principle of active personality or, in the alternative, under the principle of universal jurisdiction. The article shows how German prosecutors and courts did not shy away from creatively grappling with slave trading, slavery and trafficking conduct committed by ISIL.Cases, such as Nadine K, demonstrate a positive evolution towards cumulative charging and convictions that afford comprehensive legal redress to persons affected by the slave trade, slavery and trafficking. Still, the absence of the slave trade as an enumerated provision of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the CCAIL can be felt and must be rectified to realise legal protection as envisioned by customary international law.

THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY USE ON LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY IN THE JUDICIAL SERVICE IN NYERI COUNTY

Labour productivity was an important factor in the success of a company. A company’s output was as much dependent on labour productivity as it was on capital productivity. The study sought to examine the influence of technology used on labour productivity in the judicial service in Nyeri regional courts. The study adopted the descriptive design. The target population comprised 43 Magistrates, 93 Court Administrators, and 145 Lawyers (members of the Nyeri Law Society). Using 30% representation, a sample size of 13 Magistrates, 21 court administrators, and 44 Lawyers (members of the Nyeri Law Society) was utilized. The study used cluster random sampling to select 8 clusters, stratified sampling to identify the sample within each cluster, and simple random sampling to choose respondents from each stratum. It collected quantitative and qualitative data using questionnaires and interviews, then used statistical analysis to organize, summarize, and present the data. Quantitative data was analyzed with descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviation) and presented in tables, graphs, and charts. The study demonstrates a very strong positive correlation between labour productivity in courts and technology used (coefficient of 0.746 with a significance level of 0.000. The regression analysis shows that technology use significantly enhances productivity, with a one-unit increase resulting in a 0.265 standard deviation rise (Beta = 0.265, p = .026). The study recommended that the judicial service should improve the technology infrastructure to boost productivity and performance in the legal sector.

Integration, supranational authority, and human rights

ABSTRACT Ernst Haas was intrigued by the possibility that international governance could promote peace and stability. International human rights regimes are one such system of governance. Haas was the first political scientist to analyse closely, in his 1970 book, an international body for the adjudication of human rights claims. He concluded that the ILO mechanism for hearing claims was ineffective because states largely failed to implement its rulings. Today, three regional human rights courts receive a growing number of petitions and routinely find that states have violated rights contained in the applicable regional and international treaties. Integration in the domain of human rights courts can be tracked along three axes: vertical incorporation of international human rights into national law; horizontal integration as the regional courts pay attention to and cite each other; and effectiveness, evaluated here in terms of state compliance with judgments. The empirical discussion focuses on these dimensions and their development in three functioning regional human rights courts. Linkages across the regional courts have expanded, producing a global human rights commons. But as Haas might have predicted, the degree to which democracy has taken root in a region conditions the effectiveness of its human rights court.