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Michigan Journal of International Law

Atrocities

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Experiments In International Criminal Justice: Lessons From The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, John D. Ciorciari, Anne Heindel Mar 2014

Experiments In International Criminal Justice: Lessons From The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, John D. Ciorciari, Anne Heindel

Michigan Journal of International Law

Important experiments in international criminal justice have been taking place at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC or Court), a tribunal created by the United Nations and Cambodian Government to adjudicate some of the most egregious crimes of the Pol Pot era.2 The tribunal opened its doors in 2006, and although its work continues, its first seven years of operations provide an opportunity to evaluate its performance and judge the extent to which legal and institutional experiments at the ECCC have been successful to date. This Article will show that, in general, the ECCC’s most unique and …


Special Court For Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?, Charles Chernor Jalloh Apr 2011

Special Court For Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?, Charles Chernor Jalloh

Michigan Journal of International Law

The creation of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL or the Court) in early 2002 generated high expectations within the international community. The SCSL was generally deemed to herald a new model or benchmark for the assessment of future ad hoc international criminal courts. As the Court completes the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor in The Hague-its last-nine years later, this Article offers an early and broad assessment of whether it has fulfilled its promise. More specifically, this Article examines whether the SCSL has achieved, or more accurately-because its trials are still ongoing-whether it is achieving justice. …


Designing Bespoke Transitional Justice: A Pluralist Process Approach, Jaya Ramji-Nogales Oct 2010

Designing Bespoke Transitional Justice: A Pluralist Process Approach, Jaya Ramji-Nogales

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although many scholars agree that contemporary transitional justice mechanisms are flawed, a comprehensive and unified alternative approach to accountability for mass violence has yet to be propounded. Like many international lawyers, transitional justice theorists have focused their assessment efforts on the successes and failures of established institutions. This Article argues that before we can measure whether transitional justice is working, we must begin with a theory of what it is trying to achieve. Once we have a coherent theory, we must use it ex ante, to design effective transitional justice mechanisms, not just to assess their effectiveness ex post. Drawing …


Tadić, The Anonymous Witness And The Sources Of International Procedural Law, Natasha A. Affolder Jan 1998

Tadić, The Anonymous Witness And The Sources Of International Procedural Law, Natasha A. Affolder

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article explores the Trial Chamber's decision to allow the use of anonymous testimony as a protective measure in the wake of the final judgment in the Tadić trial. This initial decision, granting the prosecutor's request for protective measures including the withholding of four witnesses' identities from the accused, formed a precedent upon which later rulings for protective measures relied, both throughout the Tadić case and in subsequent cases before the International Tribunal.


A Human Rights Exception To Sovereign Immunity: Some Thoughts On Princz V. Federal Republic Of Germany, Mathias Reimann Jan 1995

A Human Rights Exception To Sovereign Immunity: Some Thoughts On Princz V. Federal Republic Of Germany, Mathias Reimann

Michigan Journal of International Law

Though narrow in scope, this article is emphatic in its message. It is time to deny immunity to foreign sovereigns for torture, genocide, or enslavement, at least when they are sued by Americans in American courts. Such a denial would be consonant with two developments that have marked international law since World War II: the restriction of sovereign immunity and the expansion of human rights protection.


Sovereign Immunity And Violations Of International Jus Cogens - Some Critical Remarks, Andreas Zimmermann Jan 1995

Sovereign Immunity And Violations Of International Jus Cogens - Some Critical Remarks, Andreas Zimmermann

Michigan Journal of International Law

The scope of this article, like the one to which it responds, is limited. It does not purport to resolve any question relating to the municipal law of the United States, such as the interpretation of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Instead, it considers the problem from a purely international law perspective. Furthermore, it does not indulge in a complete description of attempts made by the Federal Republic of Germany to pay compensation - as far as feasible - for all the blatant human rights violations committed by Nazi Germany in the period 1933-1945.