The construction of a humanized international law

This volume is the sixth in the series 'The Judges', which collects and synthesizes the opinions of leading international Judges of the contemporary era who have contributed significantly to the progressive development of international law. The current volume contains a selection of the Individual Opinions of Judge Antônio A. Cançado Trindade, former Judge and President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and since 2008 a Judge of the International Court of Justice. Many dwell on aspects of the increased humanization of international law. Elevating this body of norms, which have traditionally focused on purely inter-State relations, to a level where individuals and their suffering (projected in time) become a primary concern, is without doubt Antônio A. Cançado Trindadeś major doctrinal contribution.^

Revisiting the traditional conceptions of the basis of State responsibility and of jurisdiction, the problems of amnesty laws, the prohibitions of jus cogens, the imperative of access to justice in the light of jus cogens, the obligations erga omnes of protection, the provisional measures of protection, locus standi in judicio and the international legal personality of the human person, jus standi and the international legal capacity of the human person, and developments in reparations, are but a few examples of the themes examined in the learned Opinions expressed by Judge Cançado Trindade at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The great achievement of Judge Cançado Trindade at the International Court of Justice has been to draw attention to this dimension, and to further its development in the international case-law, in the light of the universal juridical conscience and stressing the relevance of general principles of international law.^

In a significant number of cases the World Court acts today as a human rights court, dealing increasingly, albeit under the traditional umbrella of inter-State disputes, with situations that involve human suffering and lead it to find human rights violations.--