All barristers and senior clerks are urged to complete this survey.  Your responses will determine our decisions and be crucial to shaping the future direction of the profession.   Possible objections, Hockman said, were: what law would be applied by such a body; why introduce a new body when institutions already exist; and why establish a court that cannot enforce its decisions?
Answering these, Hockman said international law was sufficiently developed to allow the court to decide upon the appropriate law to apply; it was doubtful that any existing institution would assume a role of the kind envisaged; and international law is generally obeyed despite the lack of binding force, in the same way as the law in general is obeyed.

The court could perform a range of functions, he said, for example, adjudicating on disputes arising out of the UN “environmental” treaties, performing a judicial review function to bodies involved in interpreting international environmental obligations, or offering specialist panels regarding shipping and aviation.

Simon Garrod, Head of Professional Practice, Bar Standards Board