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Do International Rulings Have Spillover Effects?: The View from Financial Markets
- World Politics
- Cambridge University Press
- Volume 68, Number 4, October 2016
- pp. 713-751
- 10.1017/s0043887116000113
- Article
- Additional Information
How influential are international courts? Can their rulings reach beyond a given case and affect the behavior of countries not party to the dispute? International law is clear on the matter: rulings have no formal authority beyond the case at hand. This tenet is consistent with the incentives of sovereign states wary of delegating too much authority to courts. By contrast, the authors claim that even in the absence of formal authority, the rulings of international courts can affect behavior by mobilizing pro-compliance groups in countries not party to a dispute. They test these beliefs in the context of the World Trade Organization (