Justice After Atrocity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Ashby Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Legal Remedy ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Mediation Processes

Anthropologists have been critical of the global asymmetries of knowledge and power embedded in justice institutions established in the aftermath of violence. Truth commissions and mediation processes may be coopted by states seeking to nation-build and extend their coercive and normative capacity in local communities. International criminal courts may impose an alien version of justice that disrupts national politics and a peace process, and they often misapprehend the causes of mass crimes because they employ a form of legal inquiry that is far removed from local historical contexts. Litigation against companies for complicity in crimes against humanity may raise survivors’ expectations, only to dash them when states refuse to recognize universal jurisdiction. Even when legal recourse is not successful, new social movements focused on accountability, reparations, and legal remedy can emerge that engender new forms of sociality and political subjectivity. Anthropological investigations into transitional justice reveal a complex process in which survivors can recover an emancipatory political agency, and anthropologists testifying as experts often influence outcomes more than anticipated.

Procedural Justice in International Criminal Courts: Assessing Civil Parties’ Perceptions of Justice at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Killean
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Unique Case ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Participant Satisfaction ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Procedural justice advocates argue that fair procedures in decision making processes can increase participant satisfaction with legal institutions. Little critical work has been done however to explore the power of such claims in the context of mass violence and international criminal justice. This article critically examines some of the key claims of procedural justice by exploring the perceptions of justice held by victims participating as Civil Parties in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (eccc). The eccc has created one of the most inclusive and extensive victim participation regimes within international criminal law. It therefore provides a unique case study to examine some of claims of ‘victim-centred’ transitional justice through a procedural justice lens. It finds that while procedural justice influenced civil parties’ overall perceptions of the Court, outcomes remained of primary importance. It concludes by analysing the possible reasons for this prioritisation.

Many Doors to International Criminal Justice

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
John Braithwaite
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Survivor Guilt ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Complex Sequences

Responsibilities to protect and prevent elite crimes are best energized by enforcement that walks through many doors. Effective deterrence is rarely delivered by the International Criminal Court. Yet deterrence is possible when it patiently cumulates through many doors. Likewise truth, justice, and reconciliation can achieve little through one door and much through many. Opening more doors to the complexly cross-cutting character of survivor guilt with mass atrocities can better open possibilities for future prevention and reconciliation than simply doors to courtrooms that find a criminal on one side of complex sequences of atrocity. The Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Trials opened quickly after World War II. They did not prove to hold keys to truth and reconciliation for Germany until the Eichmann trial finished in Jerusalem in 1962. Why? Still today, non-confession by the U.S. to Hiroshima/Nagasaki as war crimes has meant truncated Japanese reconciliation. Different kinds of doors are needed with crimes like the Dresden and Tokyo fire bombing, the rape of Nanjing and the “comfort women” issue. These have included citizens tribunals, truth commissions, and indigenous justice in cases like Bougainville that rejected the truth commission model. When we reflect upon door diversity, transitional justice turns out not to be very focused on justice or international criminal law, and not to be at all transitional, but rather a maze of doors to justice of diverse kinds that open or close across the longue durée (as developed in the work of Susanne Karstedt).1

scholarly journals Remarks by Julian Nicholls

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 134-135
Author(s):  
Julian Nicholls
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Judicial Systems

Investigation and prosecution at international criminal courts and tribunals of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide often present challenges which are less common in domestic judicial systems. These challenges may include conducting investigations many years after the crimes were committed, in faraway countries, in which much of the testimonial and other evidence is likely in a language not spoken by the majority of the lawyers and investigators on the team.

Part III Epilogue and Reflections, 8 Conclusions and the Way Forward

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kittichaisaree Kriangsak
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Legal Assistance ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Draft Convention

The chapter describes international efforts to close the gaps in existing treaties on the obligation to extradite or prosecute. These include: (i) the joint initiative for the adoption of a new international instrument on mutual legal assistance and extradition for the effective investigation and prosecution of the most serious crimes of international concern, in particular, the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, by domestic jurisdictions; and (ii) the International Law Commission's work on a draft convention on Crimes against Humanity. The chapter also explores the issue of capacity building for the national judiciary and a regional judicial mechanism to help alleviate the burden of the International Criminal Court; national peace/reconciliation, international peace/stability, and other considerations against the implementation of the obligation to extradite or prosecute; the operation of transitional justice as an alternative to prosecution; and the implications of the atrocities in Syria for the future prospects of this obligation in the context of international criminal justice.

Measuring the impact of punishment and forgiveness: a framework for evaluating transitional justice

2006 ◽  
Vol 88 (861) ◽  
pp. 19-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Hazan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Community ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
The Impact

Truth commissions, international criminal tribunals, reparations, public apologies and other mechanisms of transitional justice are the new mantras of the post-cold-war era. Their purpose is to foster reconciliation in societies that have experienced widespread human-rights violations and to promote reform and democracy, the ultimate aim being to defuse tension. But to what degree are these mechanisms, which are financially and politically supported by the international community and NGOs, truly effective? Very little, in fact, is known about their impact. By examining the underlying hypotheses and workings of transitional justice and proposing a series of indicators to evaluate its results, this article helps to fill the gap.

Cosmopolitan Pluralist Hybrid Tribunals

2020 ◽  
pp. 594-625
Author(s):  
Elena Baylis
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Atrocity Crimes ◽  
Core Features

This chapter assesses hybrid tribunals as an example of cosmopolitan pluralist engagement. Hybrid tribunals, also known as internationalized criminal tribunals or hybrid courts, are ad hoc courts that incorporate a blend of international and national components and have jurisdiction over atrocity crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. These tribunals are expected to achieve their transitional justice and rule of law goals in no small part through the mechanism of pluralist engagement among multiple international and national legal communities. This chapter reviews the evolution of hybrid courts’ original core features of mixed staffing, mixed law, domestic location, and close relationship to the national legal system, including the emergence of new elements such as victim participation and domestic outreach. It evaluates their efforts to promote the goals of domestic perceived legitimacy, capacity building, and norm penetration, assesses the inclusivity of their design processes, and considers their influence on norm fragmentation in international criminal law. Overall, as institutions, some hybrid tribunals offer substantial opportunities for cosmopolitan pluralist engagement between international and local actors, while others are significantly constrained by institutional design or operational choices.

scholarly journals Pluralism in International Criminal Procedure

2019 ◽  
pp. 992-1017
Author(s):  
Jenia Iontcheva Turner
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Procedure ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Proper Weight

This chapter examines the pluralistic nature of international criminal procedure. International criminal procedure refers to the procedures used at the international criminal courts and tribunals that were established to address war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other serious offenses. The chapter begins with an overview of the evolution of modern international criminal procedure, first at the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and then at hybrid courts and the International Criminal Court. It then discusses the goals pursued by international criminal procedure, such as: providing a fair trial, establishing the truth, enforcing criminal laws effectively, respecting human rights, and promoting the rule of law. Different views about the proper weight to be placed on each of these goals leads to diverse procedures across and within international criminal courts. The chapter considers two examples of pluralism in international criminal procedure: judicial management of criminal proceedings and involvement of victims in the proceedings. Finally, the chapter offers a normative assessment of pluralism in international criminal procedure. While diversity of procedures can help international criminal courts arrive at solutions that address the unique political and practical challenges of international criminal justice, divergent procedures within the same court raise concerns about predictability and equal treatment.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Orentlicher
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Justice ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Local Impact ◽  
External Actors

This chapter previews the book’s recurring themes, highlighting the dynamic nature of an international court’s impact in countries directly affected by its work. The ICTY’s local impact has been a function not only of its own performance, but also of evolving social and political conditions in Bosnia and Serbia. Those conditions have, in turn, have been influenced by the policies of external actors, including the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The introduction also highlights the book’s contributions to two related questions: (1) What goals should be ascribed to international criminal courts?; and (2) Under what conditions, and to what extent, can international justice advance aims widely associated with home-grown measures of transitional justice?

Transitional justice and the International Criminal Court – in “the interests of justice”?

2007 ◽  
Vol 89 (867) ◽  
pp. 691-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dražan Đukić
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Prosecutorial Discretion ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Treaty Interpretation

AbstractTransitional justice encompasses a number of mechanisms that seek to allow post-conflict societies to deal with past atrocities in circumstances of radical change. However, two of these mechanisms – truth commissions and criminal processes – might clash if the former are combined with amnesties. This article examines the possibility of employing the Rome Statute's Article 53 so as to allow these two mechanisms to operate in a complementary manner. It considers three arguments – an interpretation of Article 53 in accordance with the relevant rules on treaty interpretation, states' obligations to prosecute certain crimes and the Rome Statute's approach to prosecutorial discretion – and concludes that Article 53 is ill-suited to accommodate truth commissions in conjunction with amnesties.

Shakespeare's Fools

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Maja Milatovic-Ovadia
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Life Imprisonment ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Applied Theatre ◽  
Work Functions

In November 2017, Ratko Mladic, a war-time leader and a commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, was sentenced by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal to life imprisonment for the genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the region the verdict was received with conflicting reactions, emphasising yet again how extensive the ethnic division is within the society. Through close analysis of the theatre project Shakespeare’s Comedies performed by ethnically segregated youth in Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article aims to understand how Shakespeare’s work functions as a vehicle to address the consequences of war and to support the complex process of reconciliation under circumstances in which the issues of war crimes cannot be tackled in a straightforward and direct manner. The study takes a cross-disciplinary approach to research, drawing from theory of reconciliation, applied theatre practice and comedy studies.

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