Judicial Impartiality in International Courts: Of Law and Corruption

The essence of the Rule of Law is ordering affairs according to principle rather than prerogative. Thus, the essence of judging is decision-making dominated by principle rather than preference. The subtle influence-peddling form of corruption is embedded in the realities of political systems including even widely respected systems. The essence of judging is making decisions predominantly on principle rather than preference. The principles of decision, consistent with the Fuller notion of law, must be visible and uniformly applied. Several empirical studies have looked into judicial impartiality and national bias in international courts. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was organized under agreement between the UN and Cambodia as an independent court using a mixture of foreign personnel embedded with Cambodian staff and judges. The International Commission of Jurists seems the obvious place to turn for support and promotion of judicial impartiality. Keywords: corruption; ECCC; international courts; judicial impartiality; rule of law