CYIL vol. 10 (2019)

ONDREJ HAMUĽÁK

CYIL 10 ȍ2019Ȏ

Klučka, Ján et al. Miesto a význam regionálnych súdnych orgánov v kontexte súčasného regionalizmu Košice: Šafárik Press, 2018, 172 p., ISBN 978-80-8152-694-7 [The Position and Relevance of Regional Courts in the Context of Contemporary Regionalism] The announced monograph and academic works behind it put together a team comprising of reputable authors who belong to the top representatives of the Slovak science of international and European law (Klučka, Jánošíková) as well as younger colleagues who have very promising publication history (Elbert, Benko, Kubala). Despite the fact that it represents the collective work of five authors, the text is perfectly monolithic and intrinsically very consistent. 1 At first glance, the authors devote themselves to a very broad subject that combines ideological, doctrinal, and practical aspects. The work itself, however, does not only bring a general analysis. On the contrary, the authors tried to raise their attention to many of the current issues associated with the role and functioning of international regional and supranational courts. In the individual chapters, the authors respond to the current issues and recent developments. The book thus analyses, for example, the very “hot” topic of protection: respectively maintaining the rule of law and the role of international courts in this matter (in Chapter 1); the issue of individual access to international courts, which is a key issue related to the legitimacy of such judicial authorities (Chapter 2); tools for interaction between the national level of application of law and international courts in the form of preliminary questions or similar instruments (Chapter 3); as well as the theme of integrity, ethical dimension, and authority of the personnel (justices) of international judicial bodies (Chapter 4). Choosing the abovementioned issues is not only very topical, but also very original in my view. The book is not restrained in the classical (static) description of the competences and tools of the international judiciary; on the contrary, it offers the study of very contemporary issues. And additionally, all presented and analysed themes are strongly connected by one common line of thought. The key idea is the problem of legitimacy, acceptance, and authority of international courts. The presented monograph, although it is using different points of view and analysing seemingly different topics, writes chapters of one story – a story about the importance of international courts as guarantors of justice and fairness. Achieving these criteria is closely linked to the moral credit and ethical integrity of the judges (the topic discussed by prof. Klučka in Chapter 4, where he gradually analyses and compares the ethical codes of key international courts and raises the question of necessity/preparation of single universal code in this matter). Moreover, the fulfilment of the requirements of legitimacy and authority of international courts is also related to other issues addressed by the book. These ideals depend on the level of inter-connection between right holders (individuals) and 1 The internal coherence of the research is evidently rooted in the fact that all five authors came from the same academic background and conduct their academic activities as the members of Institute of International Law and European Law at Faculty of Law, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia.

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