Resumen de The independence of international courts – making reputation work?

Stefan Voigt

• Posner and Yoo challenge the conventional wisdom that independent courts are desirable at the international level. Based on the finding that factually independent courts on the nation state level have a number of positive effects, I ask whether factually independent courts at the international level also have positive effects. I argue that the main product supplied by international courts is information and that reliable information about the past behaviour of parties to a treaty is a necessary condition for the reputation mechanism to work internationally. I further argue that the independence of international judges is a necessary condition for the courts to produce high quality information.