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The Ties that Bind: How Domestic Politics Influence Ties with Extraterritorial Courts—A Study of the JCPC
Date
2018-08
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Publisher
Pi Gamma Mu Inc.
Abstract
During the last half century, extraterritorial courts and the number of acceding states have markedly increased. As Robert Koehane notes, better theories of domestic politics are needed to bridge the gap between external and internal environments in a systematic way.1 Therefore, it is important to better understand the relationships between the extraterritorial court and the state. This paper posits that the governments of those states will seek a change or disengage from the extraterritorial court if they perceive a disconnection between themselves and the extraterritorial court. The perception of such a disconnection is influenced by changes in the political environment that make the state more sensitive to decisions that are unfavorable to it. To test this theory, this paper examines arguably the first and best example of an extraterritorial court, namely the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC). An examination JCPC decisions where the state is a party to the appeal in the context of different political environments demonstrate that unfavorable decisions in themselves do not move the state to abandon the court. Conversely, favorable decisions do not perpetuate access to the JCPC. These findings suggest that the decisions of the court are not sufficient cause for the state to abandon the court. This work is a first step in broadening our understanding of the linkage of states and extraterritorial judicial institutions in the context of domestic political environments.
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