The International Monsanto Tribunal (hereinafter “the Tribunal”) is a so-called “Opinion Tribunal”. An Opinion Tribunal is neither an ordinary court that falls within the judicial order of a State, nor a court set up by an international organisation.

It is an “extraordinary” court born out of the determination of civil society that takes the initiative and is actively involved in it. It follows the long tradition of opinion tribunals created in 1966 under the impetus of the philosophers Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre and whose principles are wellknown. In 1979, at the initiative of the senator and theorist Lelio Basso, the Russell Sartre Tribunal extended into the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. Several opinion tribunals have already been held in different countries and on various subjects

The Tribunal sat in The Hague from 16 to 18 October 2016. It was composed of five judges from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Mexico and Senegal, all of them legal professionals or practising judges called upon to render an advisory opinion on the basis of a legal analysis and reasoning

The Members of the International Monsanto Tribunal (IMT) are:
Dior Fall Sow (Senegal),
Jorge Fernández Souza (Mexico),
Eleonora Lamm (Argentina),
Steven Shrybman (Canada) and
its President, Françoise Tulkens (Belgium)

The Registry was held by Prof. Dr. Marcos A. Orellana (George Washington University School of Law), assisted by Chancia Plaine (lawyer specialising in environmental law, France).