Edited by Steven van Hoogstraten
There is a visible interface between international law and the Hague, the city where so many institutions of international law are established. This book presents the views developed by some of the active players in the legal capital of the world. The starting point is a reflection of what was said during a seminar in January 2016 in the Peace Palace.
The intention was to identify some of the greater legal policy questions of today: the acceptance of the jurisdiction of the ICJ as a prerequisite to dispute settlement – so called optional clause. Is that precondition still necessary ? And can the ICJ be seen – should it be seen – as the constitutional court of the United Nations, capable of reviewing the legality of the UN decision making ? What can be said about mediation as an instrument next to arbitration and judicial settlement ? What role for the Hague Academy of International Law in all this ?
This emphasis on the classical international law in the Peace Palace goes hand in hand with the younger discipline of international criminal law, as practiced by the ICC and the special Tribunals like ICTY and STL. This book contains several essays on the future of international criminal law. One of the contributions brings new ideas how to make the lengthy procedures before the criminal tribunals, which seem to rely much on the Anglo-American system, more speedy and efficient. Other contributions debate the universality of human rights and the best mechanisms for the protection of human rights: again a global matter of policy and law .
All in all, the ambition of this book is to bring those ideas to an international audience in order to give, as the title says, a picture of some new challenges and a View from the Hague.
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Publisher: BRILL Nijhoff in Leiden (www.brill.com).
Photography Steven van Hoogstraten by Roy Strik.
