Part V Institutions and Actors, Ch.27 The Role of International Tribunals: Law-Making or Creative Interpretation?

Subject(s):

Treaties, interpretation — Travaux préparatoires — NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations)

This article examines the law-making and legal interpretation roles of international human rights tribunals. It identifies the factors that could potential influence the interpretation of human rights norms and describes the relevant practices of the Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Court. It argues that the function of judicial or quasi-judicial bodies is to interpret and to apply the law to a set of factual circumstances that constitute the situation or case under examination.