ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concept of a ‘critical juncture’, and explains that critical junctures can produce fundamental change, but they can fail to produce fundamental change. It examines the critical juncture concept to think about the future of international courts (IC). The chapter explores why the international legal order is likely to weather the critical juncture. It argues that the liberal idea of a rule of law is an antecedent condition that is being called into question. International courts have, historically, been institutional beneficiaries of critical junctures. ICs developed and flourished as part of the international liberal order, and the legal rules that ICs most often adjudicate tend to be associated with the priorities and values of the international liberal order. Historical institutionalism teaches that institutions are sticky – particular policies and institutions may recede in importance but institutions are seldom dismantled. International courts are sleeper institutions that wait to be activated by litigants.
