Resourcing Global Justice: The Resource Management Design of International Courts
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12452 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
Resourcing Global Justice: The Resource
Management Design of International Courts
Theresa Squatrito
University of Oslo
Abstract
This article examines the resource management design of international courts (ICs) and asks: how are ICs designed in terms of
the management of resources and what factors contribute to the resource management design of ICs? Theoretically, this arti-
cle draws on existing literature to conceptualize resource management as a design feature of international courts and consid-
ers three causal mechanisms that might shape the resource management design of ICs: diffusion by emulation, the uploading
of domestic governance norms, and bureaucrats who pursue institutional independence and sustainability. Empirically, I exam-
ine the resource management design of 24 ICs and assess who selects their chief administrators and approves their budgets.
A case study on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is also analyzed in order to gain traction on the causal mechanisms gen-
erating resource management design of ICs. The article shows that there is a strong tendency for ICs to have greater control
over the appointment of their chief administrators, but less control over their budgets. States generally retain authority to
approve ICs’budgets. Moreover, it suggests that domestic judicial norms and national legal bureaucrats influenced the design
of the CCJ’s resource management.
Policy Implications
•This paper has policy implications for how international courts can be designed, and that in designing ICs attention to
resources and their management merits significant consideration.
•The paper shows that the Caribbean Court of Justice offers an innovative model of how to finance and govern interna-
tional courts. This is a model that merits further consideration by policy makers as an approach to resourcing international
courts.
•As policy makers may look to existing ICs for ideas on how to design new ICs, the typical (European) models offer only
some options. These other designs merit careful consideration because they have implications for how ICs perform and
their independence.
•As policy makers may look to existing ICs for ideas on how to design new ICs, domestic judiciaries can also provide a
source of inspiration.
States have increasingly recognized international courts (ICs)
to be crucial to global governance. As a result, we have wit-
nessed their proliferation. Today, policy makers and aca-
demics contemplate the creation of additional courts.
Ongoing debates in the area of international investment
buzz with ideas for the creation of world investment court
and in some circles a global human rights court has gained
traction (Scheinin, 2012). Yet when states establish interna-
tional courts, they face several questions concerning how to
design them. One set of questions pertains to their resourc-
ing. How should the resources of a court be governed? Who
should control the budgets of ICs? How should administra-
tive staff be selected and to whom should they be responsi-
ble?
Despite being among the essential design choices that
states must concern themselves with when creating new
international courts, we know little about their resource
management design, or the rules governing the control of
their resources. This is somewhat surprising because existing
literature has examined how ICs are financed (Ingadottir,
2004, 2014; Romano, 2005; Wippman, 2006) and the resour-
cing of ICs might have consequences for the processes by
which IC operate and the outcomes they produce. This arti-
cle responds to this gap in the literature by examining
resource management, conceived as a dimension of institu-
tional design. Specifically, I ask two questions concerning
the governance of ICs’material and human resources. First,
how are ICs designed in terms of the management of
resources? Second, what factors contribute to the resource
management design of ICs?
Theoretically, this article draws on existing literature to
conceptualize resource management as a design feature of
international courts. The article develops an explanatory
account of the causal mechanisms that shape resource man-
agement design. Three causal mechanisms are considered:
diffusion by emulation, the uploading of domestic gover-
nance norms, and bureaucrats who pursue institutional
independence and sustainability. Empirically, I examine the
resource management design of international courts,
defined as permanent international judicial bodies that: (1)
©2017 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Global Policy (2017) 8:Suppl.5 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12452
Global Policy Volume 8 . Supplement 5 . August 2017
62
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