Recording | The Advisory Function of International Courts and Tribunals

Speaker: Professor Patrícia Galvão Teles (Institut de Droit International)
Chair: Professor Philippe Sands KC (University College London)

About the lecture (view the recording below)

It has been just over one hundred years that a permanent judicial system has been established and, since its establishment, with the Permanent Court of International Justice, an advisory function – alongside with a contentious one – has been a permanent feature of international justice. The resort to the advisory function in the Permanent Court of International Justice and in the International Court of Justice has varied over the decades, but, without question, there have been important advisory opinions rendered by both Courts.

The availability of such function, which is different in nature and also in terms of process from contentious proceedings, has also led to intense discussions on whether seeking an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice by, for instance the General Assembly, would be an efficient and appropriate avenue to settle difficult and sensitive legal questions such as those concerning immunities of heads of State or liability for climate change impacts.

Furthermore, many of the existing international courts and tribunals that have been created in the last 75 years, and greatly inspired in the experience of the judicial organs of the League of Nations and in particular of the United Nations, possess today an advisory function, and several of them have already had the opportunity to exercise it.

About the Speaker

Professor Patrícia Galvão Teles is member of the United Nations International Law Commission and of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. She is Legal Advisor of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Professor Galvão Teles is also Associate Professor of International Law at the Autonomous University of Lisbon, Co-Director of the Singapore CIL eAcademy of International Law and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law of the National University of Singapore.

Currently she is Vice-President of the Portuguese Society for International Law and a member of the Standing Steering Committee of the International Law Association. In 2021, she was elected Associate Member of the Institut de Droit International.

Watch the Lecture

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About Current Legal Problems

The Current Legal Problems (CLP) lecture series and annual volume was established over fifty five years ago at the Faculty of Laws, University College London and is recognised as a major reference point for legal scholarship.