The independence of international courts – making reputation work?

Posner and Yoo challenge the conventional wisdom that independent courts are desirable at the international level. Based on the finding that factually independent courts on the nation state level have a number of positive effects, I ask whether factually independent courts at the international level also have positive effects. I argue that the main product supplied by international courts is information and that reliable information about the past behaviour of parties to a treaty is a necessary condition for the reputation mechanism to work internationally. I further argue that the independence of international judges is a necessary condition for the courts to produce high quality information.