International Law From The Trial Judge's Vantage Point

摘要

When I was appointed to the bench twenty-eight years ago, the vast area of international law was primarily a matter of intellectual curiosity for federal district judges. We looked at comparative legal systems with an eye toward making our own work a little less burdensome and confusing. The trial judge is essentially a pragmatist controlled by the discipline of rules and dominated by the ideologies of others in the form of binding authority. Until recently, we were not called upon to examine the judgments and decisions of other nations. International law today, however, is rapidly emerging in ways that affect a court's daily tasks. This emergence is coincident to globalization and a judge's intellectual curiosity has shifted to pragmatic necessity. The importance of globalization is obvious: twenty-five percent of the U.S. gross domestic product is internationally derived. For example, there is no longer such a thing as an American car; its parts, design and various manufactures come from throughout the world. Another example: guess, for a moment, the number of countries in which the clothes you are now wearing have their origins and assemblies.