International Judicial Cooperation in Times of Crisis

This chapter analyses the development of international cooperation between judicial and administrative authorities in times of crisis. Specifically, this chapter will focus on selected global crises, such as the global financial crisis of the late 2000s and the 2015 European refugee crisis occurring as a result of armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Because global crises are intensifying cross-border conflicts, they challenge nations to improve their administrative and judicial instruments of international cooperation to ensure law enforcement and protection of rights in a transnational zone. The multifaceted crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is also a rich example of the important role to be played by international administrative and judicial cooperation in the various spheres of public and private law. Thus, this chapter aims to show that national legal systems, irrespective of the branch of public or private law, tend to converge with greater intensity in times of cross-border crises. It reveals that international judicial cooperation serves as an instrument for the convergence of national legal systems as it facilitates finding common solutions to transnational conflicts.