Intl Tribunals Synoptic Chart2.Pdf

The material herein may be reproduced without seeking permission Concept: Cesare P. R. Romano, The Project on International Courts and Tribunals provided that it is accurately reproduced, is not used for commercial Center on International Cooperation, purposes, and includes an acknowledgement of the author, and the New York University The International Judiciary in Context Project on International Courts and Tribunals. Design: Lorenzo Ottaviani Design / NY

International Judicial Bodies International Criminal Trade, Commerce www.pict-pcti.org General Jurisdiction Law/Humanitarian Law Human Rights and Investments Regional Economic Integration Agreements EXISTING EXISTING EXISTING EXISTING Europe Europe /Central Asia DORMANT Latin America / Caribbean Log on to our website for news • International Court • International Criminal Tribunal • European Court of Human • World Trade Organization EXISTING in a legal and regular manner. EXISTING • Economic Community of West EXISTING of Justice (1946 ) for the Former Yugoslavia (1993 ) Rights (1959-1998 / 1998 ) Dispute Settlement Understanding African States Tribunal (1975) about all international courts • Court of Justice of the European The Court does not formally • Economic Court of the Commonwealth • Court of Justice of the (1995 ) and tribunals (judgments, • International Criminal Tribunal • Inter-American Court Communities (1952 ) adjudicate disputes (although it of Independent States (1993 ) • Judicial Board of the Organization EXTINCT Andean Community (1984 ) press releases, articles, and more). for Rwanda (1995 ) of Human Rights (1979 ) The DSU created a dispute settlement of Arab Petroleum Exporting • Benelux Economic Union Court can render advisory opinions). • Permanent Court of International system based on a standing political When auditors discover cases of Countries (1980) • Central American Court of Justice This chart can also be of Justice (1974 ) Justice (1919-1945) EXTINCT NASCENT organ (the Dispute Settlement Body), irregularities, including suspected Africa /Middle East “Corte Centroamericana downloaded from the PICT site. • Court of Justice of the Economic de Justicia” (1994 ) • African Slave Trade Mixed • African Court of Human comprising all members of the WTO, a The Benelux College of Arbitrators fraud, the information is EXISTING Community of Central African set of ad hoc expert panels, and the has been listed in the section communicated to the Community Tribunals (1819-1866 circa) and Peoples’ Rights (1998) • Common Court of Justice and States (1983) EXTINCT Appellate Body. The reports of the “Permanent Arbitral Tribunals / bodies responsible in order that Arbitration of the Organization Law of the Sea • International Military Tribunal Conciliation Commissions”. • Court of Justice of the Arab • Central American Court at Nuremberg (1945-1946) PROPOSED Panels and the Appellate Body can be they may take appropriate action. for the Harmonization of rejected by the DSB only by consensus. Maghreb Union (1989) of Justice “Corte de Justicia EXISTING • International Human • Court of First Instance of the • EFTA Court (1994 ) Corporate Law in Africa (1997 ) • International Military Tribunal • Court of Justice of the African Centroamericana” (1908-1918) • International Tribunal for the Rights Court Strictly speaking, only the Appellate European Communities (1988 ) for the Far East (1946-1948) Body belongs in this column, while the • Court of Justice of the Common Economic Community (1991) Law of the Sea (1996 ) The European Court of Auditors DORMANT DSB and the panels should be listed in Market for Eastern and Southern NASCENT (1977) is not quite an international • European Nuclear Energy • Southern Africa Development ABORTED the section, “Permanent Arbitral Africa (1998 ) • Caribbean Court of Justice (2001) judicial body (see back). It is an Tribunal (OECD) (1957) Community Tribunal (1992) • International Prize Court (1907) Tribunals/Conciliation Commissions”. internal control body of the • Western European Union EXTINCT PROPOSED Environment European Union. It examines PROPOSED NASCENT PROPOSED Tribunal (1957) • East African Community Court • MERCOSUR Court of Justice PROPOSED whether EU budgetary revenue of Appeal (1967-1977) • International Islamic • International Criminal Court (1998) • International Loans Tribunal has been received, and the • European Tribunal on State Court of Justice • Inter-American Court of • International Court corresponding expenditure incurred, Immunity (Council of Europe) • East African Community Common International Justice for the Environment (1972) Market Tribunal (1967-1977) • Arab Court of Justice

Quasi-Judicial, Implementation Control and other Dispute Settlement Bodies

Human Rights Bodies International Administrative Tribunals Inspection Panels International Claims and Compensation Bodies - Multilateral / Bilateral EXISTING EXISTING EXISTING EXISTING EXISTING EXISTING EXISTING EXTINCT EXISTING The date in parenthesis • ILO Commission of Inquiry (1919 ) • Commission for Displaced • International Labour Organization • Inter-American Development • World Bank Inspection Panel • Iran-United States Claims • German Forced Labour • Property Commissions under This list is not exhaustive, indicates the year in which • ILO Committee of Experts Persons and Refugees Administrative Tribunal (1946 ) Bank Administrative Tribunal (1994 ) Tribunal (1980 ) Compensation Programme (2000) the Peace Treaty with Japan but only illustrative. There are the body started operating. on the Application of (Bosnia Herzegovina) (1995 ) • United Nations Administrative (1981 ) • Inter-American Development • Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims • Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims (1951-1961*) more than 80 mixed arbitral Conventions and • Commission to Preserve Tribunal (1949 ) • International Monetary Fund Bank Independent Investigation Tribunal (1983 ) Commission (2000 ) • Arbitral Tribunal and Mixed tribunals and claims commissions Note: this is not the date that were created in the on which the agreement Recommendations (1926 ) National Monuments • Appeal Board of the Organization Administrative Tribunal (1994 ) Mechanism (1995 ) • United Nations Compensation Commission under the 1953 London (Bosnia Herzegovina) (1995 ) EXTINCT Agreement on German External nineteenth and twentieth establishing the body • ILO Conference Committee for Economic Cooperation and • Asian Development Bank • Asian Development Bank Commission (1991 ) Debts (1953-1980*) centuries in the wake of armed was signed, nor necessarily on the Application of Development (1950 ) Administrative Tribunal Inspection Policy (1995 ) • Commission for Real Property • American-Mexican Claims conflicts and revolutions. Most the date of the agreement’s Conventions (1926 ) EXTINCT • Appeals Board of the Western • African Development Bank Claims of Displaced Persons Commissions (1868,1923 and 1924) • Arbitral Commission on Property, of them were created in the entry into force. • United Nations Commission • European Commission European Union (1956 ) Administrative Tribunal and Refugees (Bosnia and • Conciliation Commissions under the Rights, and Interests in Germany aftermath of World Wars I and II. on Human Rights (1959-1998) 1947 Peace Treaty with Italy (1956-1969) EXTINCT on Human Rights (1946 ) • Council of Europe Appeals Board • Latin American Integration Herzegovina) (1995 ) * This is the date in which the last (1947-1965*) The dates in parenthesis • ILO Governing Body Committee on (1965 ) Association Administrative • Claims Resolution Tribunal for • Austro-German Property Arbitral award was made. • UN Tribunal for Eritrea (1951-1954) Tribunal (1961-1973) indicate the period during Freedom of Association (1950 ) • Appeals Board of NATO (1965 ) Tribunal Dormant Accounts in Switzerland which the body was (1997 ) • Committee of Independent • Appeals Board of the • UN Tribunal for Libya (1951-1955) in operation. Experts under the European Intergovernmental Committee EXTINCT ABORTED Social Charter (1965 ) for Migration (1972 ) • League of Nations Administrative Certain bodies, after • Committee on the Elimination • Appeals Board of the European Tribunal (1927-1945) having had their constitutive Permanent Arbitral Tribunals/Conciliation Commissions Internationalized Criminal Courts and Tribunals of Racial Discrimination (1969 ) Space Agency (1975 ) • Appeals Board of the European instruments adopted, • International Civil and Political • Administrative Tribunal of the Space Research Organization EXISTING EXISTING EXISTING never started functioning. Rights Committee (1976 ) (1966-1974) The date in parenthesis Organization of American States • Permanent Court of Arbitration • OSCE Court of Conciliation and • Kosovo War and Ethnic Crimes The so-called Lockerbie Trial • Appeals Board of the European indicates the year in which • Inter-American Commission (1976 ) (1899 ) Arbitration (1994 ) Court (2000 ) Court was not an international on Human Rights (1979 ) • World Bank Administrative Space Vehicle Launcher • International Joint Commission • NAFTA Dispute Settlement • United Nations Transitional body nor an internationalized one. the constitutive instrument Development Organization • Committee on the Elimination Tribunal (1980 ) (1909 ) Panels (1994 ) Administration in East Timor – It was a Scottish court, applying was adopted. (1966-1974) of All Forms of Discrimination Prosecutor General (2000 ) Scottish criminal law. Unlike DORMANT • Bank for International • Arbitration and Mediation Center the bodies listed in this column, Against Women (1981 ) Settlements Arbitral Tribunal (1930 ) of the World Intellectual Property Certain bodies, while NASCENT it did not carry out its functions formally still operating, • Committee on Economic, Social • International Civil Aviation Organization (1994 ) under international supervision. have not received and Cultural Rights (1987 ) Organization Council (under the • Special Court for Sierra Leone EXTINCT (2001) any submission for • Committee Against Torture (1987 ) Non-Compliance / Implementation Monitoring Bodies 1944 Chicago Convention the Truth and reconciliation • Upper Silesia Arbitral Tribunal • Extraordinary Chambers in the several years. • African Commission on Human EXISTING NASCENT NASCENT ICAO Council has certain dispute commissions (like the ones created settlement competences) (1944 ) (1922-1937) Courts of Cambodia (2001) for South Africa, Guatemala, NASCENT and Peoples’ Rights (1987 ) • Implementation Committee • Desertification Convention (1994) • Rotterdam Convention on the Prior The date in parenthesis • OAU Commission of Mediation, Argentina, etc.) are not listed • European Committee for the under the Montreal Protocol • Basel Convention on Control of Informed Consent Procedure for DORMANT PROPOSED in this chart because, although indicates the year in which Conciliation and Arbitration (1964 ) Prevention of Torture and on Substances that Deplete Transboundary Movements of Certain Hazardous Chemicals and • Arbitral Tribunal of the • Special Court for Liberia of international interest, they are the constitutive instrument Inhuman or Degrading the Ozone Layer (1990 ) Hazardous Wastes and their Pesticides in International Trade • International Centre for the Inter-governmental Organization essentially domestic endeavours. was adopted. Treatment or Punishment • IMO Sub-committee on Flag Disposal (1998) Settlement of Investment for International Carriage by Rail (1989 ) Disputes (1966 ) PROPOSED State Implementation • Kyoto Protocol (1997) • Multilateral Consultative Process (OTIF) (1890) These are bodies whose • Committee on the Rights (1992 ) for the United Nations Climate • Gulf Cooperation Council • Aarhus Convention on Access to • Arbitral College of the Benelux establishment has been of the Child (1990 ) Change Convention (1998) Commission for the Settlement of • Implementation Committee Information, Public Participation in Economic Union (1958) considered in the past • European Commission Against of the Protocols to the 1979 • Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety Disputes (1981 ) by academics and Decision-making and Access to • Court of Arbitration of the French Racism and Intolerance (1993 ) ECE Convention on Long-Range Justice in Environmental Matters (2000) • Court of Arbitration for Sport Community (1959) law-makers,but which have • Human Rights Commission Transboundary Air Pollution (1998) • Stockholm Convention on Persistent (1984 ) not yet become reality. (1997 ) • Arbitration Tribunal of the Central for Bosnia Herzegovina (1995 ) Organic Pollutants (2001) • North American Commission on American Common Market (1960) Environmental Cooperation (1993)

Version 2.0 (August, 2001) The Project on International Courts and Tribunals

The International Judiciary in Context: The institutions and mechanisms listed in this chart have very few legal or functional links among one another, A Synoptic Chart either within or across each major grouping or cluster.Admittedly, until 1995 the International Court of Justice could review judgments of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal, but the link was then severed by the UN General Assembly. Certain institutions listed in the group “human rights bodies” (e.g., the Inter-American The purpose of this chart is to provide international legal scholars and practitioners with a compendium of all Commission on Human Rights) act as a mandatory filter for certain international courts and tribunals (in this international judicial bodies. Yet, this apparently straightforward task is riddled with traps and dilemmas. case the Inter-American Court of Human Rights). Again, there are several cases of potentially competing “juris- Perhaps the greatest challenge is to portray what can be called oxymoronically “an anarchic system” without dictions”, both among bodies within the same group (e.g., the International Court of Justice and the exaggerating its level of order. The grouping and sub-grouping of all these bodies and mechanisms into a tax- International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) and bodies in different groups (e.g., the non-compliance proce- onomy does not imply the existence of an “international judicial system”, if by system it is meant “a regularly dures, the International Court of Justice or the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Body, to cite but a interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole” or “a functionally related group of ele- few). However, beyond such links, each institution is formally unrelated to any other. ments” (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed.). Whether they ought to exist as a system is open to debate. Nonetheless, in their staggering diversity these 125 international bodies and mechanisms have certain com- The second challenge is that in order to capture the dynamism and fluidity of the international judicial domain, monalties that justify their presence on the same layout. First, all of these entities make legal determinations, any chart of the international judiciary needs to have a temporal dimension. Thus, alongside existing institu- and this sets them apart from other bodies, such as the UN General Assembly or the Parliamentary Assembly of tions, such as the International Court of Justice, the chart portrays bodies that have been closed down (labeled the Council of Europe, which share the same aspiration towards a “just world” but are of a quintessentially “extinct”), such as the Permanent Court of International Justice. There are also bodies provided for in treaties political nature. To be precise, these 125 bodies determine whether certain acts are congruous with certain that never entered into force (aborted), such as the International Prize Court; idle ones like the Organization for norms. And this leads to a second commonality, which is the fact that in order to make their determinations Security and Cooperation in Europe’s European Nuclear Energy Tribunal (dormant); and nascent bodies, like the they all resort to the same body of law: international law. Third, all of these international bodies have been International Criminal Court. Moreover, the synoptic chart also includes bodies that have been debated and established directly or indirectly (i.e., through a decision taken by a body established by treaty) by international remain confined to the realm of ideas, such as a possible International Court for the Environment (proposed). In agreements. It follows that they are subject to a legal order that is different from that of national systems, but, sum, the chart depicts the past, present and potential make-up of the international judiciary. at the same time, that they are subject to (and materially dependent on) State support. Finally, and perhaps The main focus of the chart is on international judicial bodies. On the top portion of the chart, there are 43 dif- more importantly, collectively they are the expression of a widely shared need to abandon a world where only ferent institutions (of which only 16 are currently functioning) grouped by subject-matter jurisdiction in seven States count and the mighty rule, in favor of an order where certain fundamental common values are shared, clusters. All the entities listed in this group meet certain fundamental criteria, which set them apart from all protected and enforced by all members of a wide society, composed of States, International Organizations and other entities listed in the bottom part of the chart. Namely, these entities: individuals in all their legal incarnations (NGOs, peoples, corporations, natural persons, etc.). Like any chart, this one is most likely incomplete. It is the result of an ongoing research effort carried out with- a) are permanent institutions; in PICT, and should be considered at best a partial representation of what exists, or has existed. Certain group- ings have a mere illustrative function, for the enormous number of bodies that have been created in the past b) are composed of independent judges; could not properly fit in the scheme. Other entries might change status in the near future, and new institutions c) adjudicate disputes between two or more entities, and mechanisms might be created. Therefore, this chart will be updated regularly. To this end, any comments at least one of which is either a State or an International Organization; and suggestions will be greatly appreciated and can be sent to . d) work on the basis of predetermined rules of procedure; and e) render decisions that are binding. Cesare P.R. Romano

Altogether, these entities form the so-called “international judiciary”. However, in order to fully understand the reasons for the rapid quantitative increase in the number of international judicial bodies, the extensive transfor- Note to Version 2.0 mation of their competencies, and the success of certain subject-matter jurisdictions over others, it is necessary This is an updated version of the Synoptic Chart that was prepared in 1998 as a supplement to the special issue of the NYU to include also those bodies and mechanisms which, while not meeting several or all of the above mentioned Journal of International Law and Politics, Vol. 31, 4. That version listed 41 bodies in the top group and 55 in the bottom one. standards, also play a role in the enforcement, interpretation and implementation of international law. When Some of the additions are new bodies that have been created or proposed since 1998, while others are simply past omissions that have been kindly pointed out by readers. these international judicial bodies are placed in a much larger historical and analytical context, 82 other entities and mechanisms, referred to as “Quasi-Judicial, Implementation Control and other Dispute Settlement Bodies”, New features of this chart include a special category for “dormant bodies” and a new sub-grouping in the bottom part called “Internationalized Criminal Courts and Tribunals” (i.e., domestic criminal tribunals with international supervision created in the and gathered in seven autonomous clusters, need to be accounted for (excluding extinct International Claims aftermath of regional and domestic armed conflicts, such as those for Sierra Leone, Kosovo, East Timor, and Cambodia). These and Compensation Bodies). are the latest additions to the multitude of bodies populating the international legal scene.