Lunch seminar with Kyra Wigard
The Impact of Legal Origin on International Judicial Decision-Making:
Evidence from the International Court of Justice & the International Criminal Court
What happens when judges from different legal traditions rise to the international level to adjudicate highly sensitive matters together on the basis of international rules? Drawing from legal origin literature and comparative legal studies, there should be a major impact of those different legal traditions on judges’ decision-making processes. The PhD project seeks to answer this question in the contemporary international legal profession, as represented by judges serving in international courts. Building on emerging empirical legal scholarship, the project aims to determine whether these commonly held ideas of the impact of the legal origin are indeed verified and, to the extent that they are or are not, what significance this may have.
International judges inevitably bring with them the experience and/or (legal) training and culture they have enjoyed often within, but not necessarily limited to, their domestic contexts. Therefore, the distinctive environments of the ICJ and ICC are uniquely placed to be used as a natural experiment to untangle individual effects from institutional effects. Indeed, the founding Statutes of both courts are “frozen” in time, which entails that the only variables in the institutions occur through its judicial personnel.
By analysing the voting behaviour of judges, their individual opinions and by conducting interviews with relevant actors (including (former) judges), the project aims to uncover the perceived dominant impact of legal origin on the judicial mindset of judges at these two permanent international courts. Simultaneously, it aims to identify other important factors that influence the judicial decision-making process, such as the professional background of judges. During the lunch seminar, Kyra will present the PhD project and share some first findings.
Speaker bio
Kyra Wigard is a third-year PhD researcher at the Centre for Legal Theory and Empirical Jurisprudence at KU Leuven under the supervision of Professor Arthur Dyevre. Her research focuses on the impact of legal origin on the decision-making of international judges at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. The aim is to further uncover the alleged divide and shed light on judicial decision-making at the two courts.
She obtained Masters of Law (LLMs) in Legal Philosophy and in Public International Law at Leiden University (2017) and studied at the University of Oxford and Sciences Po Paris. She also holds a BA in English Language and Literature from Leiden University.
Prior to her PhD research, she held positions as a Delegate for the International Federation for Human Rights’ (FIDH) Permanent Representation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and as a Legal Fellow for Armanshahr/OPEN ASIA researching the Afghanistan situation before the ICC. She has also taught International Law and Introduction to Law at Leiden University.
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