Courts and international legal order: international rule of law and transnational judicial dialogue
This article focuses on the concept of transnational judicial dialogue as an important part of contemporary discussions on the role of domestic and international courts in promoting international rule of law. By using methods of conceptual and comparative research, the article analyses major works of influential scholars of international law on judicial dialogue among courts. Interdisciplinary perspective of the article enabled to elaborate on consequences of global and regional political trends on functioning of courts. The article concludes by articulating the importance of the concept of transnational judicial dialogue for scholars of international law in Central Asia. Courts have become strategic actors by playing influential role in implementation of international law. Judicialization of domestic politics and legalization of international politics explain increased importance of courts in international legal order. Scholars have proposed to propose more nuanced explanations of reactions of domestic courts to international law instead of traditional monist-dualist explanation. Universal adherence to international human rights law, strengthening of liberal conceptions of international law, increasing awareness for international rule of law, and influence of globalization on functioning of international and domestic courts are increasing the interactions between courts of different levels (national, regional, and international). Transnational judicial dialogue has emerged as an important concept to analyse these interactions. It refers to situations where courts cite in their judgments the decisions of foreign and international courts. This practice is found across many different national, regional and international courts worldwide. Despite popularity of this concept among scholars of Asia, Africa, Europe or United States, few works were published on judicial dialogue of courts in post-Soviet region or Central Asia. There is a need to address this gap by promoting concept of judicial dialogue among Central Asian scholars. It will help to generate useful debates on important topics of international law concerning Central Asia like international human rights, international development or protection of environment. It will also strengthen dialogue between global academic community and Kazakhstani/Central Asian scholars.