The BRICS Chief Justices' Forum is a high-level institutional concept and platform for dialogue among the judiciaries of the BRICS member states and partner countries. It is not a permanent institution with a fixed charter, but a recurring event hosted by the Supreme Court of a member nation to promote judicial cooperation. The forum's origin is connected to the broader BRICS mechanism, which was formalized with the first meeting of Foreign Ministers in New York in 2006 and the inaugural BRIC Summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. The forum was created to facilitate the exchange of views on contemporary issues related to justice delivery, international dispute resolution, technology, and sustainable development, reflecting the BRICS goal of shaping global governance norms in a multipolar world.
The mechanism works through substantive sessions and bilateral engagements between judicial heads. For instance, the forum hosted by the Supreme Court of India from September 4 to 6, 2026, focused on four key areas: Mediation and International Commercial Disputes, Cross-Border Enforcement of Arbitral Awards, Artificial Intelligence and the Judiciary, and Judicial Leadership and Sustainable Development. The discussions aim to examine mediation as a strategic mechanism for resolving international commercial disputes and explore the prospects for greater procedural harmonisation in enforcing arbitral awards. The forum connects directly to the BRICS grouping, which expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and UAE in January 2024, and Indonesia in January 2025, alongside partner countries like Belarus and Kazakhstan. The forum has recently changed by incorporating judicial leaders from these new member and partner countries, such as the Chief Justice of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the President of the UAE Federal Supreme Court, to discuss issues like the role of the judiciary in ecological governance and the use of AI.