Comparative International Courts

Now that there are more than twenty-four operational international courts,we can use comparison to better understand the interaction between design, legal substance, and context. This research examines the universe of international courts, exploring variations in design and in the creation of international courts, to elucidate when and why international courts become
politically relevant and politically controversial. A new focus concerns the international adjudication of megapolitics, meaning disputes that are of such political resonance that they divide whole polities. The focus on megapolitics provides another way to examine when international adjudication does and does not provoke a political backlash.
Select publications 
Books and Special Issues

The New Terrain of International Law: Courts, Politics, Rights (Princeton University Press, 2014)  The introduction is posted on ssrn here.

International Court Authority (Oxford University Press, 2018) expands on “The Variable Authority of International Courts. Karen J. Alter, Laurence R. Helfer and Mikael Rask Madsen Special Editors. Law and Contemporary Problems 79 (1) 2016.  The book includes a new introduction, an updated framework, six commentaries, three additional empirical chapters, and a new conclusion.

The International Adjudication of Megapolitics will appear in Law and Contemporary Problems in early 2022.  The introduction and conclusion which focuses more specifically on the consequences of adjudicating megapolitics, including backlash against ICs, are available on SSRN.

Articles (in reverse chronological order)

The ICJ In Comparison: Understanding the ICJ’s Limited Influence. Melbourne Journal of International Law. 21, 676-697, 2021

Theorizing the Judicialization of International Relations International Studies Quarterly, 63(3): 449-463, 2019 (with Emilie Hafner-Burton and Laurence Helfer).  This is a framing article for a special section, forthcoming in International Studies Quarterly.  We define a set of institutions that contribute to judicializing international relations, and theorize when and how international relations become judicialized.

Three book chapters update my work on international courts to the current era, exploring about contestant involving international law and courts in the current populist era:

“The Contested Authority and Legitimacy of International Law: The State Strikes Back” Forthcoming in: Christopher Daase and Nicole Dietelhoff eds. Beyond Anarchy: Rule and Authority in the International System, 2018. On SSRN

“The Future of International Law” in Diana Ayton-Shenker ed The New Global Agenda, Lahnham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018

“Critical Junctures and the Future of International Courts” Avidan Kent, Nikos Skoutaris & Jamie Trinidad (eds.), The Future of International Courts and Tribunals: Regional, Institutional and Procedural Challenges(Routledge, 2019). (will post in summer 2018)

“The Evolution of International Law and Courts” The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism, Orfeo Fioretos, Tulia G. Falletti and Adam Sheingate eds (Oxford University Press 2016: 590-610).  Reprinted in Orfeo Fioretos ed International Politics and Institutions in Time (Oxford University Press, 2017) p. 251-274..  Available on SSRN. Download page proofs here.

“Dispute Settlement Systems” with Liesbet Hooghe. Tanja A. Börzel/Thomas Risse (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016: 538-558). Download here.

“The Evolving Transnational Legal Order.” 7 Annual Review of Law and Social Science. 7: 387-415. 2011.

“The Global Spread of European Style International Courts.” West European Politics 35(1): 135-54. 2012.

“Tipping the Balance: International Courts and the Construction of International and Domestic Politics.” Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 13 2011.

“Delegating to International Courts: Self Binding v. Other Binding Delegation” Law and Contemporary Problems 71 (1) 37-76: 2008.

“Agent or Trustee:  International Courts in their Political Context.”   European Journal of International Relations 14 (1): 33-63. 2008.

“Delegation to International Courts and the Limits of Recontracting Political Power.”  In Hawkins, Darren, Daniel Neilson, Michael J. Tierney, and David A. Lake. 2006. Delegation under Anarchy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

“Private Litigants and the New International Courts” Comparative Political Studies 39 (1):22-49. 2006.

“Do International Courts Enhance Compliance with International Law?”  Review of Asian and Pacific Studies. No. 25.  51-78, 2003.

“Resolving or Exacerbating Disputes? The WTO’s New Dispute Resolution System.” International Affairs. 79 (4) 783-800. 2003.