Judicial dialogue

Abstract

The use of foreign case law by national, supranational and international courts is emerging as a prominent juridical phenomenon. Nevertheless, it is not a single phenomenon, as the so-called transjudicial communication is shaped in many different ways. This paper pleads for a restrict concept of judicial dialogue, as it considers that not every form of transjudicial communication can be characterized as a form of judicial dialogue. Judicial dialogue would only exist when there is a mutual and conscious exchange of ideas between different courts and when there is a previous normative conflict that those courts are meant to resolve in a dialogical way, as a clear conflict rule that could guide the jurisdictional actors in their task does not exist.