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What Is The Point Of International Criminal Justice?, Mirjan Damaška

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The first part of the article discusses the goals international criminal courts have set for themselves. The author believes that these goals are too numerous, that they are often in conflict, and that the courts are not well suited for the achievement of some of them. This situation generates disparity between the courts' aspiration and achievement, a degree of disorientation, and difficulty in assessing the courts' performance. Disillusionment stemming from unfulfilled expectations, and inconsistencies springing from disorientation, are harmful to any system of justice, and especially to international criminal courts whose legitimacy is still fragile.

In the second part of …

Ex-Post-Booker: Retroactive Application Of Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Christine M. Zievel

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In United States v. Booker, a dramatic decision handed down in early 2005, the Supreme Court attempted to cure Sixth Amendment issues by excising the mandatory provisions of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and changing the binding role of the Guidelines to advisory. For close to twenty years, federal circuit courts had used the Ex Post Facto Clause to prohibit sentencing judges from retroactively applying revisions of the federal Guidelines. However, after Booker's advisory mandate and the Guidelines' supposed loss of force in sentencing decisions, some circuits have now found that the same retroactive application no longer violates the …