Transitional Justice in Post-Revolutionary Egypt

2019 ◽  
pp. 219-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Fact Finding

Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron offers a contrasting perspective on Egypt, where a highly biased version of transitional justice—or, in other words, no transitional justice at all—was implemented. Since February 2011, criminal cases against state officials have been dropped and fact-finding committees investigating massacres perpetrated by state officials either delivered conclusions favorable to the perpetrators or were silenced. In contrast, since the summer 2013, Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members, as well as secular revolutionaries, have been heavily prosecuted and subjected to harsh sentences.

Security Sector Reform and Transitional Justice after the Arab-Majority Uprisings

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Ashour ◽  
Sherif Mohyeldeen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
The Government ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
The Military

In Chapter 12, Omar Ashour and Sherif Mohyelden examine the linked demands for transitional justice and security sector reform during and after the uprisings in Egypt. They trace the targeting of security and intelligence forces during the uprising, as perpetrators of particular abuses, and the demands in the post-Mubarak period for transitional justice and specific measures of security sector reform. These were initiated in limited ways, such as through fact-finding committees, but further steps were not taken, and following the coup in 2013, the military authorities did not support reform of the sector or transitional justice. Although human rights and transitional justice bodies were established by the government, few substantive steps were taken and the prospects for reform are slim.

Transitional Justice

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Michel ◽  
Katherine Del Mar
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Commissions Of Inquiry ◽  
Fact Finding

This chapter examines the different transitional justice mechanisms established to respond to serious international crimes that have occurred in the context of armed conflict. These transitional mechanisms include truth-seeking mechanisms such as truth commissions, commissions of inquiry, and judicial fact-finding. This chapter considers the problems that may arise in the interaction among different transitional justice mechanisms such as protection of the rights of the accused. It also argues that transitional justice requires a coordinated approach among a plurality of mechanisms to assist a society in transitioning from a state of armed conflict in which serious international crimes were committed, to a peaceful and reconciled future.

A system of circumstantial evidence for fact-finding in criminal trial

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-261
Author(s):  
Yong-Sok Ri ◽  
Yong-Min Kwon ◽  
Wi-Song Pang
Keyword(s):  
Logical Structure ◽  
Criminal Trial ◽  
Circumstantial Evidence ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Legal Evidence ◽  
Fact Finding

Abstract One of the most intractable, but significant problems in the theory of legal evidence concerns circumstantial evidence. The diversity and complexity of criminal cases cause some bottlenecks and difficulties in developing reasonable methods to prove the criminal issue by means of circumstantial evidence. The main purpose of this paper is to present more effective methods of fact-finding just by means of a system of circumstantial evidence (SCE). On the basis of analysis of the nature of circumstantial evidence, we find it necessary for the prosecution to construct a SCE in order to make a judge or jury accept the prosecution’s conclusion as the best explanation. We also present a reasonable logical structure of such a system and address some legal and logical problems in introducing it.

Common Law Principles and the Expression and Use of Forensic Evidence in Criminal Cases

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Andrew Ligertwood
Keyword(s):  
Common Law ◽  
Statistical Evidence ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Forensic Evidence ◽  
Standard Of Proof ◽  
Reasonable Possibility ◽  
The Common ◽  
Forensic Scientists ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Science Evidence

The presentation of expert forensic science evidence in rigorous statistical terms raises the question of how lay fact-finders (judges and jurors) might employ such evidence to prove events in issue. Can this simply be left to the common sense of fact-finders or should the law provide further guidance about how they should reason in applying the criminal standard of proof? Should courts demand that witnesses who give statistical evidence express that evidence in a particular form? This article examines the non-mathematical nature of common law fact-finding and its embodiment in the presumption of innocence principle underlying the criminal standard of proof. It argues that forensic scientists present evidence in a form that makes transparent the risks of error so that, in determining satisfaction of the accused’s guilt having regard to all the evidence before it, the fact-finder considers the reasonable possibility of doubts necessarily left open by statistical evidence.

Gaps in Corporate Liability

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 486-502
Author(s):  
Jelena Aparac
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
Commissions Of Inquiry ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Corporate Liability

Abstract Fact-finding is a fundamental step in providing documentation that can be used in domestic and international proceedings. The United Nations establishes commissions of inquiry to investigate international law violations, often in contexts of armed conflict, under the mandate of the Human Rights Council or other more political organs of the UN. They vary in mandate, as well as in investigative and geographic scope. However, to this day, fact-finding mechanisms or inquiry commissions have only rarely conducted investigations into corporate crimes, even in cases where the UN has explicitly recognized the part played by economic actors in armed conflicts. Because corporations are not subjects of international law, they are presumed not to have any direct obligations under international law. Moreover, the mandates of fact-finding missions de facto exclude corporations from investigations because such mandates are always designed to investigate international law violations. By voluntarily dismissing any investigation of corporate crimes, the UN is significantly limiting prospects for corporate responsibility and impeding the process of transitional justice.

Truth and Fact-Finding in the Arab Monarchies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elham Fakhro
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Political Settlement

In Chapter 9, Elham Fakhro examines the use of truth and fact-finding commissions in two monarchies, pre- and post-Arab Spring. She argues that in Morocco and Bahrain the absence of regime change has not prevented the use of truth-telling. However, that same absence of reform has constrained the scope of these mechanisms, preventing the naming of alleged perpetrators or units. And, she argues, the wider political settlement between regimes and reformers has limited the potential for the creation of other transitional justice mechanisms, or for truth-telling to act as a catalyst to reform.

scholarly journals International Commissions of Inquiry in a Networked World: Unveiling the Roles of Diasporas through an Eritrean Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-434
Author(s):  
Larissa van den Herik ◽  
Mirjam van Reisen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
International Crises ◽  
Public Hearings ◽  
Protection Information ◽  
Commissions Of Inquiry ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Information Providers

Abstract International Commissions of Inquiry (COIs) have become important components of the human rights fact-finding, accountability and transitional justice architecture. The core task of COIs is to investigate international crises and construe what happened on the ground. The increasing tendency of states under scrutiny to refuse territorial access frustrates COI performance. It leaves COIs with no option but to operate from outside the state. COIs have developed various strategies to overcome the impediment of the uncooperative state, including the use of satellite imagery, conducting extraterritorial public hearings, interviewing individuals in the territory through Skype and other media as well as collecting accounts from individuals in the diaspora. This article focuses on the engagement of COIs with the diaspora. It presents diasporas as actors that may have considerable significance for COIs in a variety of ways, beyond sharing information. The article unveils the distinct roles that diasporic actors may entertain vis-à-vis international inquiries, as subjects in need of protection, information providers, and audience and mobilization forces. Looking at the COI for Eritrea, the article tests how these different roles play out in practice and how they interrelate. It thus sheds light on the capacity of COIs to make a difference extraterritorially for individuals in the diaspora, and on the capacity of diasporic actors to influence COI findings and shape follow up. The Eritrean COI experience illustrates that a purely instrumental approach towards diasporas – one which only regards diasporas as sources of information and which fails to protect extraterritorially or tap into the greater potential of diaspora mobilization – lessens COI effectivity for broader human rights and transitional justice purposes.

scholarly journals On Juror Decision Making: An Empathic Inquiry

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 415-435
Author(s):  
Dan Simon
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Juror Decision Making ◽  
Jury Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Fact Finding ◽  
Jury Decision ◽  
Societal Expectations

This review examines the workings of jurors deciding criminal cases. It seeks not to commend or condemn jury decision making but rather to offer an empathic exploration of the task that jurors face in exercising their fact-finding duty. Reconstructing criminal events in the courtroom amounts to a difficult feat under the best of circumstances. The task becomes especially complicated under the taxing conditions of criminal adjudication: the often substandard evidence presented in court; the paucity of the investigative record; types of evidence that are difficult to decipher; the unruly decision-making environment of the courtroom; and mental gymnastics required to meet the normative demands of criminal adjudication. The critical spotlight is directed not at the jurors but at the conditions under which we expect them to fulfill their duty and at the unverified reverence in which their verdicts are held. The article concludes with a set of recommendations designed to assist our fact-finders in meeting the societal expectations of this solemn task.

scholarly journals Truth and reconciliation: Should the key notions be revised?: Experiences from South-Africa and Rwanda

Temida ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
Heidy Rombouts
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
Fact Finding

Both the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Gacaca tribunals, which started recently in Rwanda, are framed in terms of truth and reconciliation. But what does the truth mean? What does reconciliation mean? It can be argued that searching the truth has a very precise meaning - namely determining the details of what factually happened. And it is in this sense that most people understand the search for the truth. However it can be questioned whether this fact-finding is what the search for truth aims at in a context of transitional justice. .

Sem/X-Ray Applications to the Forensic Science Field

1976 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 390-391
Author(s):  
K. Culbreth
Keyword(s):  
Forensic Science ◽  
Depth Of Field ◽  
Surface Phenomena ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Forensic Evidence ◽  
Science Field ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Hit And Run ◽  
Evaluation Of Evidence ◽  
Scanning Electron

The introduction of scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray analysis to forensic science has provided additional methods by which investigative evidence can be analyzed. The importance of evidence from the scene of a crime or from the personal belongings of a victim and suspect has resulted in the development and evaluation of SEM/x-ray analysis applications to various types of forensic evidence. The intent of this paper is to describe some of these applications and to relate their importance to the investigation of criminal cases.The depth of field and high resolution of the SEM are an asset to the evaluation of evidence with respect to surface phenomena and physical matches (1). Fig. 1 shows a Phillips screw which has been reconstructed after the head and shank were separated during a hit-and-run accident.

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