Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This book offers the first systematic examination of the institutions, practices, and norms constituting international judicial governance—the oversight exercised by states and international organizations over international courts and tribunals to ensure their independent, accountable, and effective functioning. In departure from the prevalent focus on international courts’ mandates, jurisprudence, and procedure in the existing literature, this volume shifts the spotlight to international judicial governance institutions (injugovins)—the political and executive bodies charged with governing courts—and to their legal frameworks and practices. Injugovins are crucial yet long-neglected actors in the universe of international adjudication whose operation largely defines courts’ success or failure and affects their entire life cycle: from the adoption of constituent instruments to budgeting, appointments, accountability measures, institutional reforms, and enforcement to eventual closure. Many challenges faced by international courts—legitimacy crises, limited effectiveness, and political backlash—often originate in, or are exacerbated by, governance failures. This volume addresses the long-standing research gap by developing a shared vocabulary and offering the conceptualization of international judicial governance as a domain of international institutional law and practice. It charts historical and contemporary regimes, analyses the core governance functions, and highlights persistent challenges in the operation of injugovins, in particular safeguarding judicial independence. This pioneering work uniquely combines a conceptual exploration of the field, in-depth regime-specific studies, and cross-cutting functional and problem-driven critical analyses. The shared vocabulary, normative perspectives, and case-studies developed in the book can serve as important building blocks for future research on international judicial governance.</jats:p>