法院委派专家在国际法院争议解决中的作用

Role of Court-appointed Experts in Dispute Settlement by ICJ

《国际法院规约》第50条赋予国际法院主动委派专家参与解决包括复杂科学技术事实的争议的权力,但因为各种原因,司法实践中极少求助专家帮助,而是依赖当事国提供的证据或者非正式地咨询"隐形"专家的意见,因缺乏独立性、公正性和透明性而受到批评。正当程序意味着法院委派专家提供的意见应接受当事方的质询和法院提问,当事国双方应能就法院委派专家所表达的意见发表评论。这一要求可能会给国际法院就科学或技术问题作出决定带来困难。1948年"科孚海峡案"和2018年"哥斯达黎加和尼加拉瓜划界案"是国际法院迄今为止仅有的两个法院自行委派科技专家参与争议解决的案例,将会对未来国际法院的司法实践产生一定的影响。

Article 50 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice entitles the ICJ the right to actively appoint experts to provide assistance in settlement of disputes including scientific and technical issues. However, due to various reasons, resort to Court-appointed experts is rare in judicial practice, instead, the ICJ can rely on the expertise provided by the parties or informally consult "invisible" experts, thus being criticized for lack of independence, impartiality and transparency. Due process implies that Court-appointed experts should be the subject to written and oral cross-examination and be questioned by the court, and the parties should be able to comment on the views expressed by Court-appointed experts. This requirement may create difficulties for the ICJ in reaching a decision on scientific or technical issues. The 1948 Corfu Channel case and the 2018 case concerning delimitation between Costa Rica and Nicaragua are the only two in which the ICJ resorted to Court-appointed experts for scientific and technical issues and will have certain influence on the ICJ’s future judicial practice.