Locating International Criminal Justice

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Sociology Of Punishment ◽  
Global And Local

The chapter introduces the research aims, conceptual framework, and methodology of the book. Departing from the story of the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a global civil society achievement, and previous research into how global and local civil society disagreed on their support for the ICC’s intervention into the conflict in northern Uganda (where the latter pointed to how it jeopardized ongoing peace talks) the chapter lays out the central aim of the book: to explore how the role of international human rights NGOs in international criminal justice yields empirical insight into the meaning of punishment at the global level of analysis. It identifies three separate yet interrelated sets of analytic questions guiding the inquiry: (i) What are the roles of NGOs in international criminal justice? (ii) What characterizes punishment ‘gone global’? and (iii) How is international criminal justice constituted by and of ‘the global’? The chapter situates the analysis through a brief background section on the development and institutions of international criminal justice, and contextualizes the ICC’s intervention in Uganda. It delineates the theoretical orientations for the study’s conceptual framework and contribution to a sociology of punishment for international criminal justice, drawing on a range of literatures across criminology, sociology, international relations, and international law. It then describes the organization of the book and its relation to the research strategy, before addressing the study’s methodology of a multi-sited network ethnography, its empirical data, and ethical considerations.

Advocates of Humanity: Human Rights NGOs in International Criminal Justice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Object A ◽  
Sociology Of Punishment

Advocates of Humanity offers an analysis of international criminal justice from the perspective of sociology of punishment by exploring the role of human rights organizations in their mobilization for global justice through the International Criminal Court. Based on multi-sited ethnography, primarily in The Hague and Uganda, the author approaches the transnational networks of NGOs advocating for the ICC as an ethnographic object. A central objective is to explore how connections are made, and how forces and imaginations of global criminal justice travel. By analysing how international criminal justice is arranged spatially, and as such expresses social, political, and cultural relations of power, Advocates of Humanity shows how international criminal justice is situated in particular spaces, networks, and actors, and how they structure the imaginations of justice circulating in the field. From a sociology of punishment perspective, it compares the ‘penal imaginations’ of domestic and international criminal justice, and considers the particularly central role of victims as a universalized symbol of humanity for the legitimacy of international criminal justice. With clear global asymmetries emerging from the work, Advocates of Humanity provides descriptive as well as explanatory understandings of criminal punishment ‘gone global’, analysing its social causation while examining its cultural meanings, particularly as regards its role as an expression of ‘the international’ will to punish. To whom is it meaningful, and why?

scholarly journals Analysing the Future of International Criminal Justice in Africa: A Focus on the ICC

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122
Author(s):  
Emily Ngolo
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
African Union ◽  
The Future ◽  
Enforcement Mechanisms

The International Criminal Court has generally a bad reputation in the African continent as a whole with hostile assertions by the African Union, that the court is nothing but a political tool for the powerful. The Court, plagued with numerous difficulties, has come under pressure to perform, with some doubting its viability. Created by the Rome Statute, and the parties therein governed by general treaty law, enforcement mechanisms of the court have been unsatisfactory at best and this has led to questions being asked as to its survival. There exists a pool of divergent views, in regard to the African Union and the International Criminal Court, in many of the crucial areas of international criminal justice. This paper seeks to find out just how true is the claim that the ICC is ‘dead’ is, and the implications of this in the future of the continent as regards international criminal justice. How important is it for us to preserve international criminal justice? Just how much of a role do states play in this revered area of law? Is its legal viability coming to an unfortunate premature end? What does this mean, then, for the victims of mass atrocities? This paper seeks to show an interplay of the role of states and politics in international criminal justice, and determine then, whether there exists any bright future for this area of law in Africa.

The Role of Victims in the International Criminal Tribunals of the Second World War

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Moffett
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
World War ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Second World

This article, drawing from historical research of the practice and judgements of the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, analyses the role of victims within the founding international criminal tribunals of the Second World War. While some commentators have decried the absence of victims at Nuremberg and Tokyo, numerous victim-witnesses testified before these tribunals. However, the outcome of these tribunals has been disappointing to victims who still seek justice over sixty-five years later. This article considers the implications of the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals not providing justice to victims and how this has impacted on their legacy. Although these tribunals are neglected in contemporary discussions of victim provisions in modern international criminal justice mechanisms, they can still provide some important lessons for modern international criminal justice mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court, to learn from.

Debate: The role of international criminal justice in fostering compliance with international humanitarian law

2014 ◽  
Vol 96 (895-896) ◽  
pp. 775-794 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Jenks ◽  
Guido Acquaviva
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Courts ◽  
General Deterrence ◽  
Military Commanders

Much has been written about the “deterrent” role of international courts and tribunals in preventing potential atrocities. Since the establishment of thead hoctribunals and the International Criminal Court, the international community has sought to anchor the legitimacy of international justice in the “fight against impunity”. Yet recent studies have suggested that an overly broad characterization of international courts and tribunals as “actors of deterrence” might misplace expectations and fail to adequately capture how deterrence works – namely, at different stages, within a net of institutions, and affecting different actors at different times.1TheReviewinvited two practitioners to share their perspectives on the concrete effects of international criminal justice on fostering compliance with international humanitarian law. Chris Jenks questions the “general deterrence” role of international criminal justice, contending that the influence of complicated and often prolonged judicial proceedings on the ultimate behaviour of military commanders and soldiers is limited. Guido Acquaviva agrees that “general deterrence”, if interpreted narrowly, is the wrong lens through which to be looking at international criminal justice. However, he disagrees that judicial decisions are not considered by military commanders, and argues that it is not the individual role of each court or tribunal that matters; rather, it is their overall contribution to an ever more comprehensive system of accountability that can ultimately foster better compliance with international humanitarian law.

scholarly journals Wading in Troubled Waters: Supporting the Work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) through Domestic Legal Institutions in Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-63
Author(s):  
Laurence Juma
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Justice System ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Legal Institutions ◽  
Political Climate

This article discusses the role of Kenyan domestic legal institutions in supporting principles and institutions of international criminal justice. It discusses how these legal institutions have interacted, supported and even applied the principles of international criminal justice amidst a very hostile political climate. This article argues that the current calls for withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court may be frustrated by these institutions because they have greater affinity to the principles of international criminal justice than political establishments. While acknowledging that the eradication of impunity should be a joint effort between domestic and international institutions and that the current tensions and calls for withdrawal are not good for everyone, the article argues that neither international institutions alone nor domestic systems can make progress unless there is collaboration as well as reforms in the entire international criminal justice system.    

Networks of Global Justice-Making

2019 ◽  
pp. 68-97
Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Transnational Networks ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Civil Society Participation ◽  
Core Member

The chapter analyses how the NGOs organize in order to promote the ICC, and in doing so, engages networks as an empirical and conceptual feature of what makes the global. In doing so, the grounded and contextualized method of ethnography enables recognition of ‘friction’, of awkward disconnection and unevenness in the transnational networks of global justice-making. The first part examines the networked structure of NGOs at the ICC, and the centrality of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) and its core member NGOs. Against the structural inequalities and disconnections of transnational networks, the second part shows how the CICC manage to claim a role as reflecting the global civil society in international criminal justice by largely controlling the ‘who’ and the ‘what’ of civil society participation in the politics around the ICC. At the same time, they stimulate the idea of the ‘transnational’ as a particular space for political engagement by operating as mediators between different geographical scales (local, national, regional, global), and by using law as the lingua franca between NGOs, states, and the ICC. Through representing ‘humanity’ in global justice-making, human rights NGOs serve an important role in international criminal justice as providers of moral authority. Animated by these claims to authority and representations, the final part of the chapter critically examines NGO participation against these claims, finding that they are too embedded in the field of international criminal justice to claim a position of being beyond that of externality, and of vested interest.

scholarly journals The Role of the UN Security Council vis-à-vis the International Criminal Court – Resolution 1970 (2011) and its Challenges to International Criminal Justice

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Gabriel M. Lentner
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Security Council ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Principle Of Legality

Abstract On February 26 2011, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1970 referring the situation concerning Libya to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Th is unprecedented support for and acknowledgment of the ICC did not come without a price: conditio sine qua non for Council members not party to the ICC was the inclusion of operative § 6 into the resolution, which exempts certain categories of nationals of non-parties from ICC jurisdiction. Th e same highly controversial exemption was included in the Security Council’s referral of the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005. Deviating from the Rome Statute’s jurisdiction regime such practice not just poses challenges to principles of international criminal justice but raises the question whether the Rome Statute is altered by the resolution containing the referral to the effect that the ICC is being bound to the exemptions contained in its exercise of jurisdiction. Addressing these issues, the present paper elaborates firstly on the jurisdictional exemption of § 6 and its effect on the ICC, followed by a discussion of resulting challenges to the principle of legality, the principle of universal jurisdiction for international crimes, the equality of individuals before the law and the principle of independence of the court.

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.

From Moral Entrepreneurs to Moral Advocates

2019 ◽  
pp. 98-124
Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Sociology Of Punishment ◽  
Moral Entrepreneurs

A sociology of punishment for international criminal justice enables attention to the norms, morals, and values at play in the motivational dynamics of penal reforms. At the same time, these cultural forces must be analysed against the background of social organization and structure, indeed, as to what enables people to think and feel in certain ways and to promote policies in accordance with their sensibilities. As such, this chapter explores international criminal justice as a field replete with cosmopolitan sensibilities, but also of lifestyles, qualifications, and restraints. Finding that international criminal justice is perceived as a cosmopolitan expression of social justice, the first part conceptualizes human rights NGOs working in international criminal justice as global moral entrepreneurs and shows how they use humanist discourses to promote global justice-making through law, turning them into advocates of international criminal justice. Balancing claims to authority in the field, the NGOs have to navigate between being ‘insiders’ as experts and ‘outsiders’ that can claim moral authority. The analysis draws on scholarship inspired by Bourdieu and is put to work on transnational fields, enabling attention to what is often downplayed in studies of international law, namely class. As such, the chapter inquires into whose imaginations of global justice become part of its materiality, finding that advocates of humanity predominantly belong to a class of transnational western professionals.

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