Romano: International Judicialization in the Arab World: An Initial Assessment

Cesare P.R. Romano (Loyola Law School Los Angeles) has posted International Judicialization in the Arab World: An Initial Assessment. Here's the abstract:

Over the past 20 years, international judicialization — that is, the increasing creation and use of international judicial bodies — has attracted much scholarly attention. Yet despite the concerted effort of growing numbers of scholars from an expanding and disparate number of fields (e.g. law, political science, history, philosophy, sociology) there are still significant gaps in knowledge on the factors leading to success or checks to international judicialization.

One of the least-studied areas of international judicialization is the Arab world. Although reaching most of the globe, international judicialization has mostly left unaffected this large and critical area, which is populated by more than 360 million people and quickly growing. Arab countries appear relatively seldom before global international adjudicative bodies, and the few adjudicative bodies created, or in the process of being created, in the region have been crippled by significant problems.

This paper provides first an overview of international judicialization in the Arab world and participation of Arab states in global international judicialization. Second, it advances some explanations for the factors that have led to the attempt to create international adjudicative bodies in the Arab world and the reasons why these bodies have largely failed to take roots.