Most Interesting 2020: Cançado Trindade, Reflections on the Realization of Justice in the Era of Contemporary International Tribunals

The fifth in our series "Most Interesting 2020":

Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade, Reflections on the Realization of Justice in the Era of Contemporary International Tribunals (Recueil des cours de l'Académie de La Haye, vol. 408, pp. 9-87, 2020)

Judge Cançado Trindade has always taken a somehow unconventional position regarding international justice and its theoretical foundations, object and purpose. The abovementioned Special Lecture delivered by him perfectly summarises his core ideas about that subject, as reflected in the numerous separate and dissenting opinions he had appended to the ICJ's decisions. The State-centric voluntarist positivism, as he aptly points out, is flawed and the raison d'État should undoubtedly be replaced by the raison d'humanité as the focal point of international justice (cf. pp. 67, 86, and passim). The undersigned considers that the abovementioned Special Lecture once again raises the alarm, for the sake of humanity, to reminds us that international law should, in fine, serve human values. In this regard, Judge Cançado notes the urgent need for the more enlarged "access to justice by distinct subjects of international law" (p. 85) and the further move towards compulsory jurisdiction (p. 56 and passim).

Amirhooshang Mostarshedi
PhD Student in International Law
Université Paris Nanterre