ABSTRACT
The appearance of public interest issues (e.g., climate change, pandemics, technological developments) calls for recalibrating international law to make it efficient. Advisory opinions have been a tool to elucidate the scope and content of international law. Regardless of their non-binding nature, advisory opinions enshrine authoritative statements of law which may inform further legal and political actions. Nowadays, the advisory function operates across judicial bodies (e.g., ICJ, ITLOS, IACtHR, AfCHPR, ECtHR). This proliferation calls for examining the potential of the advisory function to address legal questions of public interest. Particularly, who can request an opinion and who can participate during the proceedings? Furthermore, it calls to examine the risks and legal effects of such opinions. This chapter examines these and other issues as follows. First, it briefly explains the notion of public interest in international law. Second, it looks at the architecture of the advisory function across judicial bodies, underscoring the question of standing to request an opinion and the level of participation during an advisory proceeding. Third, drawing on two advisory opinions and the ongoing campaigns for climate advisory proceedings, this chapter explains the legal effects of an advisory opinion dealing with a public interest.
