Recueil des cours, Collected Courses, Tome/Volume 349

L’indépendance des juges internationaux, par J. Malenovský, juge à la Cour de justice des Communautés européennes
L’indépendance des juges internationaux est le fruit d’une synthèse particulière du principe général de droit imposant l’indépendance judiciaire, d’une part, et de certaines règles traditionnelles propres au statut de l’arbitre international, d’autre part. Tant le point « faible » que le point « fort » du juge international réside dans sa nationalité, facteur de rapports ambigus entre lui et l’État de sa nationalité, notamment sur le plan de sa sélection et de sa nomination, ainsi que du renouvellement de son mandat limité dans le temps. L’indépendance du juge international affecte les rapports de celui-ci avec ses pairs et ses collaborateurs ainsi que les limites de sa liberté d’expression (le droit aux opinions séparées).

Radiating Impact of WTO on Its Members’ Legal System: The Chinese Perspective, by Guiguo Wang, Professor at the City University of Hong Kong.
The World Trade Organization (“WTO”) resulted from globalization, through which national law provisions are internationalized and international norms are domesticated. The WTO does not permit reservation by its members who are obliged to ensure the compliance of their laws, policies and other measures. Once a member is found to have violated its obligations, it must rectify the non-compliance measures to avoid retaliation. The quasi-automatic approval procedure of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body has proved to be effective in ensuring the compliance by members and consistency of interpretation of the WTO Agreement. As the multilateral trade institution covers a wide range of sectors from trade in goods and services, and intellectual property to investment and the measures of the members include laws and regulations, administrative decisions and judicial rulings, the impacts of the WTO on the members’ legal systems are hugely profound and long lasting. In some cases, for the purpose of joining the WTO, the legal systems of the members concerned have been through significant changes.