Who judges the judges? Oversight mechanisms in international dispute resolution
Please find the full list of speakers listed within the Programme.
Notes & Changes
In collaboration with the University of Oslo
The success of international courts and tribunals as dispute resolution bodies is to a large extent dependent on their legitimacy, which in turn is intertwined with concepts of transparency, fairness, accountability and legality. Accordingly, the manner and effectiveness of oversight and governance over these institutions is of crucial importance, enabling legitimacy in all its facets.
Oversight mechanisms can range from informal conventions, over non-binding ‘best practice’ guidelines, to formal rules and governance by international organisations and their subsidiary organs, such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers or Conferences of State Parties. They play a key role in governing all procedural aspects of dispute resolution, including judicial recusal, the admissibility of evidence, budgetary allocation and the role of staff, and thus safeguard the proper exercise of judicial functions.
In fulfilling this role, mechanisms must also balance ensuring transparent and legitimate processes with permitting flexibility and adjusting for the specific interests and attributes peculiar to each type of dispute resolution, bearing in mind that (political) oversight might entail risks for judicial independence. Despite this significant role and myriad of challenges, such governance issues within international dispute resolution remain relatively unstudied.
This Conference, funded by the Research Council of Norway and organised by Professor Freya Baetens, seeks to provide a broad consideration of the nature, role, risks and challenges of oversight mechanisms in international dispute resolution. The presentation and discussion of papers investigating a variety of issues in this area will facilitate in-depth engagement with cutting-edge questions in the study of international courts and tribunals, and the development of a roadmap for future scholarship.
The Conference will take place at Jesus College, University of Oxford.
Programme
Wednesday 21 June
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14:00 – 14:10 |
Welcome |
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14:10 – 15:40 |
PANEL 1 Speakers Oversight by domestic courts: the Italian case after the ICJ judgment on the jurisdictional immunities of the State Igor Di Bernardini (Legal Councillor and Chancellor of the Italian Constitutional Court, Rome) Promoting accountability of international courts and tribunals and the role of civil societies: a comparative analysis Firew Tiba (Senior Lecturer in Law, Deakin University, Melbourne) Joint committees in the governance of investment arbitration: A dialogue between general international law and investment treaties Xiaotian Yu (DPhil candidate, University of Oxford) Oversight mechanisms in international ad hoc and hybrid tribunals: fostering legitimacy and accountability Ivana Hrdlickova (Special Advisor on Rule of Law and Innovation; previously President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, The Hague) Discussants Kieran Bradley (Judge, Administrative Tribunal of the European Stability Mechanism, Luxembourg) Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni (Professor of International Relations, University of Cambridge)
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15:40 – 16:10 |
Coffee and tea break |
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16:10 – 17:40 |
PANEL 2 Speakers Codes of conduct for UN investigatory bodies: is an enforcement mechanism necessary? Anne Herzberg (Legal Advisor and UN Representative, Institute for NGO Research) Interaction between judicial diversity, judicial appointments, and implicit bias Inbar Levy (Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne) & Andrew Allan Higgins (Professor of Civil Justice Systems, University of Oxford) Oversight mechanisms in investor-state dispute settlement: benefits and limitations Ksenia Polonskaya (Assistant Professor, Carleton University, Ottawa) The role of peer pressure in overseeing the judges of the International Court of Justice Zelin Li (PhD candidate, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva) Discussants Federica Paddeu (Associate Professor of Law, University of Cambridge) Pavlos Elefteriades (Professor of Law, University of Oxford) |
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17:40 – 18:00 |
Key note speech: The International Criminal Court: between governance and oversight H.E. Judge Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez (International Criminal Court) |
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18:45 – 21:00 |
Conference dinner (Mansfield College) |
Thursday 22 June
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9:30 – 11:00 |
PANEL 3 Speakers The contested authority of constitutional courts in post-conflict societies Attila Nagy (PhD candidate, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena) Disciplining judges: proposals for reform of the South African Judicial Services Commission Mia Swart (Visiting Professor, University of the Witwatersrand) The review of investment treaty arbitral awards by domestic courts Michail Risvas (Lecturer, University of Southampton) Domestic courts as overseers of international tribunals Oktawian Kuc (Assistant Professor of Law, University of Warsaw) Discussants Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez (Judge, International Criminal Court) Nazila Ghanea (Professor of International Human Rights Law, University of Oxford) |
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11:00 – 11:30 |
Coffee and tea break |
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11:30 – 13:00 |
PANEL 4: Speakers The devil is in the details: Examining the nuances of interpretative interventions as de facto oversight mechanisms Gautam Mohanty (PhD candidate, Kozminski University, Warsaw) & Alexandros Bakos (PhD candidate, City University of London) Arbitrators and the legitimacy of investor-state arbitration: evaluating recent reforms Mala Sharma (Lecturer, London South Bank University) Does United States get to judge the World Trade Organisation Appellate Body? Stuti Toshi (Senior Research Fellow, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India) Judicial discretion in the dark: how an absence of oversight has impacted the evolution of the procedure for reviewing victim applications at the International Criminal Court Karen Lønne Ring (PhD candidate, Roskilde University, Copenhagen) Discussants Malcolm Evans (Principal, Regent’s Park College, Oxford) Philip Daltrop (Member, World Bank Group Sanctions Board) |
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13:00 – 14:00 |
Lunch |
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14:00 – 15:30 |
PANEL 5 Speakers Comparing oversight mechanisms of the International Court of Justice, the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal and the Court of Arbitration for Sport Martina Coxova (PhD candidate, Charles University, Prague) Operationalising procedural fairness as an oversight standard: the European Court of Human Rights as a case study Una Schamberger (PhD candidate, University of Zurich) Legal and political oversight over the International Court of Justice Andrés Villegas (Partner, Sygna Partners, Paris) Transparency’s failings as an oversight mechanism in investor state dispute settlement Jarrod Wong (Professor of Law & co-director Global Center for Business and Development, University of the Pacific, Sacramento) Discussants Mads Andenæs (Professor of Law, University of Oslo) Miles Jackson (Associate Professor of Law, University of Oxford) |
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15:30 – 16:00 |
Coffee and tea break |
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16:00 – 17:30 |
PANEL 6 Speakers Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes - Studying the International Criminal Court Ankit Malhotra (LLM student, SOAS London) UNGA and UNSC mechanisms for ICJ oversight: balancing independence and accountability in the face of legal limitations Thanapat Chatinakrob (Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Lecturer, Thammasat University, Bangkok) Impartiality at the World Court: an interpretive and evaluative account of the rules of recusal and disqualifications in the PCIJ and ICJ Xiao Mao (DPhil candidate, University of Oxford) Access to justice in labour disputes for employees at international courts and tribunals Frederick De Cock (Operational Support Officer, EUROCONTROL & Assistant Professor, Hasselt University) The procedure to disqualify arbitrators in ICSID arbitrations: An effective remedy to guarantee the parties' fundamental right to an independent and impartial decision-maker? Laura Aragonés Molina (Lecturer and researcher, University of Alcalá, Madrid) Discussants Dapo Akande (Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford) Ewan Smith (associate Professor of Public Law, University College London) |