Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

12-5-2005

SSRN Discipline

Economics Research Network; Legal Scholarship Network; Organization Series; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; International Law & Trade eJournals; Organization Series Research Centers Papers; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Public International Law eJournals; Financial Economics Network

Abstract

Id Like to Teach the World to Sing considers the implications and lessons of Judges in Contemporary Democracy for the ongoing debate about the legitimacy of international judicial dialogue with particular attention to the problems associated with operationalizing strong forms of transnational borrowing of foreign legal precedents The interlocutors participating in the conversations set forth in Judges in Contemporary Democracy are a remarkably talented group including three members of national constitutional courts Robert Badinter Stephen Breyer and Dieter Grimm two members of transnational courts Gil Carlos Rodriguez Iglesias and Antonio Cassese and a well regarded constitutional theorist Prof Ronald Dworkin Even so the participants at times fail to appreciate the importance of political social economic and cultural factors as well as institutional structure in the operation of both courts and legal rules Even as the book demonstrates the potential value of informal forms of international judicial dialogue it suggests that significant problems remain to be addressed before strong forms of international judicial dialogue such as overt transnational borrowing of foreign legal precedents could be implemented successfullyId Like to Teach the World to Sing begins with a review of the idea of international judicial dialogue as propounded by its supporters and questioned by its critics The review essay then considers and critiques the principal arguments set forth in Judges in Contemporary Democracy and the implications of these discussions for the project of international judicial dialogue The essay concludes by positing that weak forms of international judicial dialogue could serve a kind of judicial muse an ephemeral source of inspiration and creativity but probably should not displace formal domestic sources of law in the creation explication and enforcement of fundamental human rights

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