scholarly journals Acquittals in International Criminal Justice: Pyrrhic Victories?

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
JORIS VAN WIJK ◽  
BARBORA HOLÁ
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Great Body ◽  
Unique Nature ◽  
International Criminal Trials

AbstractDespite the great body of academic research on international criminal justice, little attention has been given to the situation of those who have been acquitted. This article aims to fill this gap by offering an empirical overview of what happens to persons acquitted by the ICTY, ICTR, and the ICC. Rather than providing an in-depth legal analysis, the article emphasizes the challenges acquitted persons encounter. It discusses in particular: (1) to what extent and why some acquitted individuals are barred from residing in the country of their preference; (2) whether and why they are facing subsequent prosecution; and (3) what obstacles there are for acquitted persons seeking to obtain compensation for the lengthy periods spent in detention. Although similar problems may be experienced by individuals who have been acquitted for conventional crimes in domestic systems, the authors argue that persons acquitted by international criminal tribunals are relatively more susceptible to post-acquittal challenges because of the unique nature of the alleged crimes and the institutional context in which international criminal trials take place. The authors conclude that there are no easy solutions, and that some of the problems identified are inherent to the system of international criminal justice.

scholarly journals Trial and (Potential) Error: Conflicting Visions on Reparations Within the ICC System

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Balta ◽  
Manon Bax ◽  
Rianne Letschert
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
International Criminal Trials

Twenty years ago, the International Criminal Court (hereinafter ICC or the Court) was established holding the aim of placing victims at the heart of international criminal justice proceedings and delivering justice to them through, among others, reparations. Article 75 of the Rome Statute lays out the reparations regime, and, in practice, court-ordered reparations are a means of delivering such justice. Focusing on Court decisions on reparations, our analysis takes stock of all developments before the ICC and attempts to highlight the mismatch between characteristics inherent to the objectives of international criminal trials such as providing accountability and punishment of the accused and delivering justice for victims of mass crimes—the so-called procedural challenges. We also submit that the Court is facing conceptual challenges, related to an apparent misunderstanding of the various concepts at stake: reparations as such and the various modalities and channels of enforcing them. We conclude that although the ICC’s reparation regime may not be the best reparative response to provide justice to victims in conflict situations affected by mass victimization, we suggest that improving the ICC’s approach includes, at a minimum, tackling these challenges.

s.VII Anxieties, Ch.28 Hangman’s Perspective: Three Genres of Critique following Eichmann

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mann Itamar
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Political Community ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Adolf Eichmann ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
International Criminal Trials

This chapter takes Adolf Eichmann as an object of study in subjecting international criminal trials to three types of critique. First, adopting the perspective of the rule of law, this chapter engages with Hannah Arendt’s writing on the Eichmann trial to argue that international criminal trials are constantly suspected of becoming ‘show trials’. Second, turning to Shoshana Felman’s work, the chapter identifies a genre of critique according to which international criminal justice is premised on an experience of catharsis, in which the trauma of atrocity’s victims is alleviated (constituting a post-atrocity political community). Finally, this chapter analyzes a 2010 film that reveals the trauma of the man who executed Eichmann, to show the unacknowledged risks of wielding the violence of criminal justice. Based on this ‘hangman’s perspective’, the chapter suggests assessing international criminal trials in light of questions about the transnational allocation of such risks and about preexisting inequalities—economic, ethnic, and other—that determine the roles different people will end up playing in trials.

scholarly journals Expressing what? The stigmatization of the defendant and the ICC’s institutional interests in the Ongwen case

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Liana Georgieva Minkova
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Northern Uganda ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Operation Risk ◽  
International Criminal Trials ◽  
Empirical Contribution ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract The potential of international criminal trials to express the wrongfulness of mass atrocities and instil norms of appropriate behaviour within communities has been subject to a lively theoretical debate. This article makes an important empirical contribution by examining the limitations to the expressivist aspiration of international criminal justice in the context of the message communicated by the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor (ICC-OTP) in the Ongwen case. A detailed analysis of the selection of charges, modes of liability, and the overall presentation of the Prosecutor’s arguments at trial suggests that the ICC-OTP’s limited capabilities to apprehend suspects and its dependency on state co-operation risk the excessive stigmatization of the few defendants available for trial for the purpose of demonstrating the Court’s capability of prosecuting notorious criminals. As the only apprehended commander from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Dominic Ongwen has been presented by the ICC-OTP as the ‘cause’ of crimes committed in Northern Uganda without due regard for the degree of his alleged involvement in those crimes compared to other LRA commanders, the role of other actors in the conflict, or the significance of his own victimization as a child. Ongwen’s excessive stigmatization expressed the importance of the Ugandan investigation after a decade of showing no results. Yet, it also produced a simplistic narrative which failed to express the complexity of violence in Northern Uganda.

Victims' Participation in International Criminal Proceedings Beyond Mere Witnesses

2019 ◽  
pp. 153-196
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Unique Nature

This chapter elaborates upon the framework set forth in the preceding chapter about the unique nature of sexual violence as a tactic of war and implications of this for the victims' needs to examine the limitations and challenges in addressing these needs within the context of the international criminal trials. The discussion offers a critical evaluation of the effectiveness of the growing victim-oriented approach in international criminal justice in responding to the needs of victims of conflict-related mass sexual violence. It presents an in-depth analysis of the procedural, legal, and practical aspects of the growing trend of victims' participation in international criminal justice proceedings, as currently being developed by the ICC, highlighting issues impeding its effectiveness in advancing effective redress for victims of sexual violence in conflict situations. This chapter argues that, while the growing victims' inclusion in the international criminal process remains a significant component of comprehensive victim-focused responses, it risks failing to consider the contextual dynamics surrounding the plight of victims of conflict-related sexual violence during and after conflicts, thereby falling short of providing effective responses to the needs of victims.

Theorising law and legitimacy in international criminal justice

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-274
Author(s):  
Ralph Henham
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Legal Reasoning ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Penal Law ◽  
Law And Morality ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
International Criminal Trials

This paper seeks to explore the relationship between law and morality and its relevance for establishing the legitimacy of international criminal justice (ICJ) within the context of international trials. At present, imperatives for peace and reconstruction in conflict societies are divorced both conceptually and practically from the process of punishment in international criminal trials. It argues that, in order for international trial justice to move beyond partial forms of retributivism requires a profound re-alignment of the rationales underpinning international penality and a merging of retributive and restorative justice forms. The paper suggests that the resolution of ‘truth’ must go further than this by implicating penal law and process as crucial determinants of ‘legitimate’ strategies for intervention, thereby enabling a wider choice of consequent resolutions. The paper suggests that the intrinsic value of international criminal process lies in its capacity to confront the relativism of ICJ by providing the means to engage with its plurality and so increase its legitimacy for all victims and communities affected by social conflict and war. In so doing it considers how law may be transformed into normative guides to conduct and examines the relationship between the processes of legal reasoning and sentence decision-making in international criminal trials.

Individuals Accused of International Crimes as Delegitimized Agents of Truth

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mina Rauschenbach
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Concept Of Truth ◽  
International Criminal Trials

The workings of international criminal trials situate themselves in an era where the concept of truth is heralded as a key aspect in the production of understandings of the past within transitional justice (TJ) settings. Yet, in such contexts where representations of the past are multilayered, trials tend to put to the fore certain narratives as legitimate readings, while excluding many others. This article explores the discourses of 18 individuals accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It focuses on their role as generally delegitimized agents of truth and analyzes how they reconstruct their justice experience, focusing particularly on how they make sense of the judicial truths stemming from their case. It reveals how they reconstruct the ICTY as a hegemonic arena which produces judicial truths, which cannot be considered as legitimate and complete accounts of the past and which are at odds with their authoritative perspective of the “truth.” These findings are analyzed against the backdrop of increasing scholarly debates about the legitimacy, which can be attributed to perpetrators’ perspectives given the tendency, within TJ discourses and practices, to position international criminal justice as a universal and authoritative arbitrator of morality in conflict.

Evidence in International Criminal Trials: Lessons and Contributions from the Special Court for Sierra Leone

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Matthew Hassan-Morlai
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Rules Of Evidence ◽  
International Criminal Trials

AbstractThis article aims to contribute to the discourse on the development of a system of international criminal justice. The paper discusses the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), in particular, certain of its rules of evidence and their role in ensuring just, fair and expeditious trials for breaches of international humanitarian and international human rights law during the Sierra Leone conflict which lasted between 1991 and 2002. In the conclusion, the author considers whether the manner in which the SCSL interpreted and applied specific rules of evidence helped it to meet and contribute to the objectives of a system of international criminal justice. These objectives include holding violators of international norms accountable; guaranteeing procedural proprietary; giving legitimacy to the process and bestowing confidence in international criminal justice institutions. Though not without criticism, the author concludes that they did.

Defiance, Defence, Repentance and What Lies Between

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-177
Author(s):  
Frédéric Mégret ◽  
Marika Giles Samson
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
International Criminal Trials

Abstract What determines the particular postures of defendants in international criminal trials is little understood, even though it has a significant impact on the perceived legitimacy of those proceedings. After identifying three ideal-typical postures, this article focuses on observed instances of postural shifts and more subtle oscillations between them, in an effort to evaluate the extent to which such shifts can be said to result from defendants’ interaction with tribunals. While the evidence suggests that the lived experience of tribunal proceedings likely plays a role, there are several other plausible and important motivations for such shifts, each with their own distinct implications for international criminal justice.

The ICTY is Dead! Long Live the ICTY!

2020 ◽  
pp. 71-82
Author(s):  
Carsten Stahn
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Institutional Culture ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many

The chapter sets the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) legacies into a broader context of international criminal justice. It presents different approaches towards the many legacies of the ICTY. The chapter engages with the several phases that the Tribunal has passed, discussing their positive and negative points. It then examines the normative legacy of the ICTY, arguing that, although some gaps exist, the overall record of the ICTY is marked with several normative innovations. The chapter then visits the procedural legacy of the ICTY, in the sense of how the Tribunal made justice heard and seen. Lastly, the chapter discusses the institutional culture of the ICTY and its legacy to other international criminal tribunals. With this analysis, the chapter claims that the ICTY legacies are living beings, which will continue to be transformed throughout the history of international criminal justice.

scholarly journals Penal welfarism ‘gone global’? Comparing international criminal justice to The Culture of Control

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
National Capacity ◽  
Penal Sanctions ◽  
Justice Studies ◽  
Late Modern

With the consolidation of a cosmopolitan field of international criminal justice, penality has ‘gone global’. In spite of the abundance of doctrinal legal analysis, human rights studies, and transitional justice studies, there are few analytic attempts to engage with the working assumptions, cultural commitments, and dominant mentalities that give shape to international criminal justice as a penal field. Based on ethnographic observations, interviews with key actors, and critical reading of international criminal justice scholarship, this article compares the cosmopolitan penality of international criminal justice to that of late modern, domestic, penality. Using David Garland’s The Culture of Control as an analytic yardstick, it argues that international criminal justice both resembles and departs from ‘the national’. For example, whilst the cosmopolitan penality relies upon retributive justifications, it makes no appeal to harsh penal sanctions; nor is it concerned with the rehabilitation of prisoners. Rather, it is an expressive and humanitarian form of justice where the victim takes central stage – as the embodiment of a suffering humanity. Moreover, there is a remarkable faith in the transformative effects of international criminal justice, resembling a form of penal welfarism ‘gone global’. As national capacity building and penal development has become intrinsic to the project of international criminal justice, the article shows how the global dimension of the power to punish is based on a moralization of politics.

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