International Justice in a Changing World

Author: Xu Xiaohong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Dr. Xu Xiaohong's new book International Justice in a Changing World can be considered an important milestone in the long-term effort of the international legal community to build a modern international judicial order. The book offers serious reflections and analyses on international judicial issues, particularly how China can participate in the construction of the international judicial system. What is particularly valuable is that the author does not shy away from analyzing current major issues but instead strives to connect changes in contemporary international relations with issues of the international judicial system, raising thought-provoking questions such as why Western major powers dislike the international judicial system, which can inspire readers.
Feng Shaolei, Dean of the Institute of International Relations and Regional Development at East China Normal University, states that human society is primarily composed of human behavior and mutual activities. Such interactions inevitably form certain social relationships, which require mechanisms for resolving disputes and determining right and wrong, thus giving rise to a broad sense of "judicial" activities. Since the emergence of states in human society, corresponding international judicial circumstances have also existed. Since ancient times, as long as there have been states, there have been international relations, inevitably leading to disputes and conflicts between them, which in turn have given rise to methods and mechanisms for resolving these disputes and conflicts, with judicial means being one of the most important.
International justice refers to the set of organizations and procedures through which disputes and conflicts between states are resolved through judicial mechanisms in international relations. It can be understood in three layers of meaning: First, it can encompass all dispute resolution mechanisms and methods that exist and are used in international relations; second, it is primarily used to refer to dispute resolution mechanisms in the modern international system that take the form of international organizations and institutions, such as the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and various arbitration tribunals; third, it refers to the narrower sense, often limited to the judicial activities of the international court system (such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court).
Although international justice as a system was formally established in the early 20th century, its nature and scope align perfectly with the "international regimes" theory that emerged only in the 1970s. From the perspective of international regimes theory, international justice can be decomposed into two levels—institutions and regimes—for understanding. International justice exists in the form of certain international organizations and institutions, and its structure is aligned with the existing international organizational system. As an international regime, international justice is based on and presupposes cooperation among states, requiring all participating states to promote and develop it in a constructive manner and to refine it through necessary consensus, which is also the foundation for the existence and effective operation of the international judicial mechanism.
In the strict sense, international justice emerged alongside the modern state system. It developed from the domestic legal model of judicial theory and institutions to an international form, driven by the internationalization of the concept of judicial justice in legal thought and the practicalization of idealist propositions in international political theory.
The earliest theoretical effort to extend the domestic model of justice to the international community was natural law theory. Since international law theory is constructed based on the domestic legal model, the concept of judicial justice in the domestic legal model undoubtedly provides a legitimate foundation for the theoretical design of international justice.
The concept of judicial justice in Western society (which originated in Western European society) is based on transcendental categories such as inherent human rights and natural law, as well as a rights protection mechanism centered on trials. The concept of natural justice is primarily expressed through the concept of judicial justice in modern times, with justice becoming the ultimate value goal of judicial activities. The core idea of judicial justice, in brief, lies in the objective and impartial hearing and adjudication by an independent, fair, and neutral judicial institution (manifested as courts, tribunals, or judicial authorities), punishing crimes, preventing harm, and confirming and protecting rights, thereby demonstrating the fundamental values and justice of society.
International justice is the result of the practicalization of idealist theoretical propositions. It emerged during World War II and reflected the idealist in the international relations of that time. Although realism and idealism have fundamental disagreements and oppositions on many issues, the development of international institutions has in fact shown both idealist designs and conceptions as well as realist operations and applications. From the perspective of the emergence and development of international justice, it primarily reflects a certain intersection of idealism and realism in the international political structure.