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One of the most noted developments in international law over the past twenty years is the proliferation of international courts and tribunals. They decide who has the right to exploit natural resources, define the scope of human rights, delimit international boundaries and determine when the use of force is prohibited. As the number and influence of international courts grow, so too do challenges to their legitimacy. This volume provides new interdisciplinary insights into international courts' legitimacy: what drives and undermines the legitimacy of these bodies? How do drivers change depending on the court concerned? What is the link between legitimacy, democracy, effectiveness and justice? Top international experts analyse legitimacy for specific international courts, as well as the links between legitimacy and cross-cutting themes. Failure to understand and respond to legitimacy concerns can endanger both the courts and the law they interpret and apply.

Introduction / Harlan Grant Cohen, Andreas Follesdal, Nienke Grossman, and Geir Ulfstein -- Solomonic judgments and the legitimacy of the International Court of Justice / Nienke Grossman -- The global-local dilemma and the ICC's legitimacy / Margaret de Guzman -- Justice as legitimacy in the European Court of Human Rights / Molly Land -- Legitimacy and jurisdictional overlap : the ICC and the Inter-American Court in Colombia / Alexandra Huneeus -- The legitimacy of the European Court of Justice : normative debates and empirical evidence / Mark Pollack -- The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea : seeking the legitimacy of state consent / Anastasia Telesetsky -- Who decides matters : the legitimacy capital of WTO adjudicators versus ICSID arbitrators / Joost Pauwelyn -- The legitimacy of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes / Andrea Bjorklund -- The human rights treaty bodies and legitimacy challenges / Geir Ulfstein -- Constitutionalization, not democratization : how to assess the legitimacy of international courts / Andreas Follesdal -- Democracy, justice and the legitimacy of international courts / Mortimer Sellers -- Stronger together? : legitimacy and effectiveness of international courts as mutually reinforcing or undermining notions / Yuval Shany

"Drawing from postcolonial feminism, feminist institutionalism, feminist legal theory, and legal narratives, this book provides fresh and detailed narratives of seven women judges that challenge existing discourse on gender diversity in international courts. It answers important questions about how the politics of judicial appointments, gender, geographic location, class, and professional capital combine to shape the lives of women judges who sit on international courts and argues the need to disaggregate gender diversity with a view to understanding intra-group differences."-- Book p. [i]

Twenty-five years ago, in this Journal, Hilary Charlesworth, Christine Chinkin, and Shelley Wright argued that the structures of international law "privilege men." As shown in Table 1, which summarizes data from a forthcoming article, on nine of twelve international courts of varied size, subject-matter jurisdiction, and global and regional membership, women made up 20 percent or less of the bench in mid 2015. On many of these courts, the percentage of women on the bench has stayed constant, vacillated, or even declined over time. Women made up a lower percentage of the bench in mid 2015 than in previous years on two-thirds of the courts surveyed.

On November 19, 2012, the International Court of Justice rendered its
judgment in a dispute involving territorial and maritime claims raised by
Nicaragua against Colombia in the Caribbean Sea. The Court considered Nicaragua's
requests for a declaration of Nicaraguan sovereignty over seven disputed maritime
features and delimitation of a single maritime boundary between the continental
shelves and exclusive economic zones appertaining to Nicaragua and Colombia. The
Court awarded all disputed territory to Colombia and delimited the maritime
boundary between the states' continental shelves and exclusive economic zones by
using a novel mix of weighted base points, geodetic lines, parallels of latitude,
and enclaving.