NEW DELHI: Judicial independence is critical for the operation of legal institutions, particularly in volatile political contexts, the International Court of Justice judge Hilary Charlesworth said here on Saturday.
Hilary Charlesworth, an Australian international lawyer who has been a Judge of the ICJ since 5 November 2021, was delivering the second annual lecture on ‘The International Court of Justice: A legal forum in a political environment’ in the Supreme Court premises here.
Referring to the role of the ICJ in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, she said though the international court’s judgement did not resolve the tension between India and Pakistan, it “at least it provided a resolution and (that too a) legal resolution to an acute problem dividing them.”
On April 10, 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Field General Court Martial in Pakistan. The ICJ stayed his execution pending final adjudication of the case.
The ICJ had held that Pakistan will have to review the entire process of trial and conviction of Kulbhushan Jadhav and provide consular access to India.
She said judicial independence in the international context was aimed at eliminating any non-legal considerations that might affect a judge’s reasoning.
“Judicial independence is critical to the operation of legal institutions, particularly in volatile political contexts,” she said. Charlesworth said that the international judiciary can draw inspiration from the distinguished history of independence of India’s apex court.
“Our two courts, the Supreme Court of India and the ICJ, while very different, I noticed that we are of a very similar age, you are going into your 75th year, we’re going into our 78th year,” she said.