Domestic Courts and International Human Rights Law — The Ongoing Judicial Conversation
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410902700211 |
| Date | 01 June 2009 |
| Author | |
| Published date | 01 June 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Part C: Appendices |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human Ri ghts, Vol. 27/2, 291–307, 2009.
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 291
PART C: APPENDICES
DOMESTIC COURTS AND INTERNATIONAL
HUMAN RIGHTS LAW – THE ONGOING
JUDICIAL CONVERSATION
e Hondius Lecture 2008
e Hon Justice M K AC CMG*
1. EWOUD HONDIUS: THE HONORAND
Hondius is a name honoured in the history of the Netherlands. A glance at the
encyclopaedias records a mention of Joost de Hondt (Latinised as Jodoc us Hondius),
recorded in 1563 as the rst man to bring a globe, representing the then known
world, to England. e English derived many ideas for their global empire from the
inquisitive navigators of the Netherl ands.
At about the same time Hendrick Hondius (born 1573) established himself as a
respected engraver, specialising in the landscapes which the protestant Netherlands
added to the genre of pictorial representation, in place of the portraits of the Holy
Family more common before the Reformation. A little later, the work of Abraham
Hondius (born 1625), a noted painter of his time, was recorded with g reat praise.
Before I knew Ewoud Hondius, I had the privilege of knowing his half brother,
Frits Hondius. In 1978, I was elected to chair an expert group of the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. e group prepared
its Guidelines on Transborder Data Barriers and the Protection of Privacy.1 ose
Guidelines were adopted by the council of the OECD. ey were based, in pa rt, upon
pioneering work of the Council of Europe. Frits Hondius was the much respected
international civi l servant of that Council who had directed t he Secretariat project on
privacy (data protection). He came to the OECD to share his experience. We became
* Justice of the High Cou rt of Australi a. Formerly Special Re presentative of the Sec retary-Genera l for
Human Right s in Cambodia a nd President of the Internat ional Commis sion of Jurists. e Hond ius
Lecture wa s delivered at Utrecht University, the Ne therlands on 26 Octobe r 2008.
1 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Transborder Data Barriers and the
Protection of Privacy, OECD, Paris, 1980. e guidelines have in u enced national laws on privac y
(data protection) in many cou ntries including t he Netherlands and Aust ralia.
Appendices
292 Intersentia
rm friends. On a number of oc casions I was his guest i n Strasbourg. In later years, Frit s
Hondius played a leading role in developing the law on susta ining non-governmental
(civil society) organisations. He realised how important such organisations were for
the development and expression of fundamental human rights, not only in Europe
but everywhere. I was g reatly saddened when Frits Hondius died. However, by then I
had met Ewoud Hondius in whose honour this lecture series was established. So the
precious link is maintained.
Ewoud Hondius was born in 1942. He was educated at the University of Le yden and
at Columbia University in New York. He taught private law at Leyden between 1966
and 1980, coming to the University of Utrecht in 1980 where he quickly established
his reputation as a leading expert in European private law. He is editor-in-chief
of the European Review of Private Law. He founded the Tijdschri voor Burgerlijk
Recht [Journal for private law]. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of
Sciences and serves a s a surrogate judge of the Amsterdam Court of Appea l.
Because of his keen interest in comparative law, and his knowledge of the
approaches adopted to the law of private obligations in common law countr ies, Ewoud
Hondius has spent part of his academic career teaching and researching in overseas
law schools. It was when he spent an extended period in Sydney, Australia, that I
rst met him. Si nce then we have been associated on a number of occasions, notably
in the XVIIth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, which he
helped organise at the University of Utrecht in July 2006. He invited me to serve as
the Australian rapporteur on the theme of precedent law as it operates within the
Australia n judiciary. He became the ed itor of the reports of the rapporteurs , published
as Precedent and the Law.2
In addition to procuring the reports of the rapporteurs, Professor Hondius
published them in good time and wrote a perceptive introductory overview. is
pointed to the di erences between the role played by the law and practice of precedent
in civil law and common law countries. It also described the way in which the two
traditions are moving towards convergence. I agree with his analysis. Although
addressed to the experience of comparative law (and not speci cally international
law) the report a ords an opening text for this Hondius lecture. Propinquity has an
inevitable tendency to occasion interaction and to in uence t he ideas and conduct of
those who interact together. is is true not only in the eld of comparative law, and
speci cal ly the law of precedent and the attention given to the decisions of prominent
courts in the judicatures of all countries. Propinquity also a ords an explanation of
the growing impact of internat ional law on the minds of judges within mun icipal legal
systems. ose systems may (for the most part) continue to obser ve a dualist approach
to the relationship between municipa l and international law.
2 Hondius, E. (ed.), Precedent and the L aw – Reports to the XVIIth Cong ress, International Ac ademy
of Comparative Law (Ut recht), Bruylant, Brussels , 2007.
To continue reading
Request your trial