The dramatic rise in the number of international courts and tribunals and the expansion of their legal powers has been one of the most significant developments in international law of the late 20th century. The emergence of an international judiciary provided international law with a stronger than ever law enforcement apparatus, and facilitated the transformation of many aspects of international relations from being power-based to being law-based. The first edition of the Manual on International Courts and Tribunals, published in 1999, was the first book to survey systematically this new institutional landscape, by describing in an accessible and uniformly structured manner the legal powers and operating procedures of all major international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. In doing so, it laid the groundwork for comparative study and research of the law and practice of international courts and tribunals - an emerging field of international legal research, which has already spurred a series of publications, conferences and academic courses. This second edition updates the first edition by describing the many legal changes that have taken place in the last decade, including important reforms in the laws and procedures of many international courts and tribunals, relevant developments in their increasingly rich jurisprudence and the creation of new judicial fora. Moreover, it assesses the overall record of these judicial bodies. The data and legal analysis offered in the book provide both practitioners and academics with an important basis of knowledge that will help them better understand the details of international adjudication and its context.
Authors
Cesare P.R. Romano holds degrees in three different disciplines (political science, international relations and law) from three countries (Italy, Switzerland and the United States). His scholarship and teaching reflect the variety of his background. His expertise is in public international law, and in particular dispute settlement, international environmental law, international human rights and international criminal and humanitarian law. However, it is probably the field international courts and tribunals where he has made to date the greatest contribution, publishing numerous articles and books. He created, developed and managed the Project on International Courts and Tribunals, a joint undertaking of the Center on International Cooperation, New York University, and the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals at University College London, becoming a world-renowned authority in the field.
