Part A Major Problems of International Criminal Justice, IV International Criminal Trials, Judicial Activism v. Judicial Restraint in International Criminal Justice

Activism and restraint are, to a large extent, two self-explanatory notions which have been often used to discuss the approach of judges of the US Supreme Court.1 These concepts can be easily transposed to other fields of law, including ICL; nonetheless one should be cautious about their use. Often the distinction is used to characterize individual judges (or even entire courts) as progressive or conservative; however, in this respect the dichotomy is mistaken. There have been enough cases of activism by conservative judges or of restraint by progressive judges in...