Law Commons^™

Comments On The International Criminal Court Office Of The Prosecutor's Draft Policy On The Crime Of Gender Persecution Under The Rome Statute, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Reports and Comments

The Draft Policy promises to be a seminal contribution not only to the Office of the Prosecutor's (OTP) policy and practice and the International Criminal Court's (ICC) jurisprudence on gender persecution, but also to the development of international criminal law generally. Building on its prior work, including the 2014 Policy Paper, the OTP is well placed to develop policies and procedures that protect historically marginalized and oppressed groups, deliver justice that accurately reflects the depth and breadth of the gender persecution suffered, and shed light on a crime that has to date received only limited attention.

As it finalizes the …

Observations Of Professor Gabor Rona On The Pre-Trial Chamber's Conclusion That Events Beyond The Territory Of Afghanistan Lack Sufficient Nexus To The Armed Conflict There For Pruposes Of Application Of Rome Statute War Crimes, Gabor Rona

Amicus Briefs

Prof. Gabor Rona, Director of CLIHHR's Law and Armed Conflict Project, submitted an amicus brief to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with the Prosecutor's request to commence an investigation into international crimes arising out of the situation in Afghanistan. A Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) had rejected the Prosecutor's request to investigate CIA war crimes arising from secret detention and torture of detainees at "black sites" in Poland, a State Party to the ICC Treaty. The PTC held that those events lacked sufficient nexus to the armed conflict in Afghanistan. Rona argues to the Appellate Chamber that both the Geneva …

Talking Foreign Policy: Art, Diplomacy And Accountability, Milena Sterio, Mark Ellis, Shannon French, Bill Schabas, Paul R. Williams, Michael P. Scharf

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Talking Foreign Policy is a one-hour radio program, hosted by Case Western Reserve University School of Law Co-Dean Michael Scharf, in which experts discuss the salient foreign policy issues of the day. Dean Scharf created Talking Foreign Policy to break down complex foreign policy topics that are prominent in the day-to-day news cycles yet difficult to understand.

This broadcast featured:

• Paul R. Williams, President and cofounder of the Public International Law & Policy Group, who has advised parties to treaty negotiations around the world
• Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association
• Bill Schabas, a professor at Middlesex University …

Can The International Criminal Court Deter Atrocity?, Hyeran Jo, Beth A. Simmons

All Faculty Scholarship

Whether and how violence can be controlled to spare innocent lives is a central issue in international relations. The most ambitious effort to date has been the International Criminal Court (ICC), designed to enhance security and safety by preventing egregious human rights abuses and deterring international crimes. We offer the first systematic assessment of the ICC's deterrent effects for both state and nonstate actors. Although no institution can deter all actors, the ICC can deter some governments and those rebel groups that seek legitimacy. We find support for this conditional impact of the ICC cross-nationally. Our work has implications for …

June Roundtable: International Criminal Court, Peace, And Justice, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Peace Must Not Be the Victim of International Justice” New York Times. March 16, 2012.

From Retribution To Reconciliation, From Spoiler To Peace Envoy, Christine Bell

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Is there a tension between justice and peace? That debate I leave to my co-panelists, because the most interesting and important thing about this month's centerpiece, without a doubt, is not its well-judged (if slightly ill-informed) take on the ICC, but the name of the author at its end.

“Slippery Slopes: On Why We Need The Icc”, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Peace, reconciliation, and restorative justice: these are the albatrosses that international criminal law (ICL) must (unfairly) bear. Ian Paisley, MP from Northern Ireland and former United Nations and European Union peace envoy, echoes in a New York Times op-ed contribution the aspirations heaped onto the International Criminal Court (ICC). In March, the ICC convicted Thomas Lubanga for war crimes and the conscription of children as soldiers; justice has been done, Paisley claims. Yet the ICC was "intended as an instrument of peace," and "there is no peace" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On this ground he concludes, …

“Seeking Justice, Strategically”, Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In his opinion piece, Ian Paisley takes to task the International Criminal Court (ICC) for, as he sees it, intervening in domestic processes of reconciliation at the expense of long-term prospects for peace. The "peace versus justice" paradox is not a new one and Paisley expresses a common criticism of justice mechanisms as disruptive of post-conflict, societal healing and the overwhelming hurdle of governing in the aftermath of violence. Missing from his analysis is a broader understanding of trends in international justice and accountability, of which the ICC is only one component. While the ICC is certainly not immune from …

The Icc Prosecutor V. President Medema: Simulated Proceedings Before The International Criminal Court , Pieter H. F. Bekker, David Stoelting

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

On July 18, 2000, as part of the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, an all star cast of American and English lawyers gathered in the Common Room of the Law Society of England and Wales in London to simulate oral argument before the International Criminal Court ("ICC"). The fictitious proceedings involved a head of state, President Luis Medema, charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The prosecutors and defense counsel engaged in lively oral argument before the Trial Chamber in the context of three critical issues: (1) jurisdiction of the ICC over citizens of non-state parties; …

Bashir And The Icc, Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nesrine Malik argues that the International Criminal Court (ICC) made a mistake when it declared that it might charge Omar al Bashir with genocide, in addition to the existing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. She argues that the court’s ruling will contribute to Bashir's propaganda efforts and that the current charges have had no appreciable effect. Given the extreme duplicity of Bashir and the other crimes he has quite clearly committed, it is unclear how the genocide charge would make a big difference.

Can The Icc Ever Get It Right?, Richard Burchill

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nesrine Malik makes clear with her title, “The ICC’s Blunder on Sudan,” that something has gone amiss with the efforts of Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to ensure the ICC statute is applied to those circumstances it was meant to address. But why is something amiss in this situation? The Prosecutor has a mandate and the legal regime for the ICC is relatively clear (at least procedurally); the crimes it covers can always be debated, but there is a degree of clarity present as to what acts are addressed; so what has gone wrong? The difficulty lies in expectations about justice and …

Politics And The Law: Enforcing Judicial Integrity, Anna Talbot

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in early February concerning the arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir provoked controversy. The role of the Court has been called into question, with Nesrine Malik’s piece surmising that the ruling has shown that the Court is out of touch with political reality. She argues that the decision plays into the hands of authorities who are using it to their own political ends; that the charge of genocide is unjustified; and that the practicalities of enforcement undermine the Court.

Confronting The Politics And Law Behind Battles Over The Icc’S Bashir Indictment, Anthony Chase

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nesrine Malik points in the wrong direction in arguing that charges of genocide embarrass the ICC more than they do Omar al-Bashir. The embarrassment here should come from those, such as Malik, who snidely downplay the level of war crimes committed in Darfur, who discuss genocide as if it is a cultural rather than political matter (does Malik seriously think genocide ever has anything to do with a country’s cultural traditions, as she says in defending Sudan?), or who naively give credence to predictable political push-back from Sudan and its allies. The ICC faces serious legal and political obstacles, some …

March Roundtable: Icc And Darfur Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The ICC's Blunder on Sudan” by Nesrine Malik. The Guardian. February 4, 2010.

Marten Zwanenburg On Killer Robots: Legality And Ethicality Of Autonomous Weapons. By Armin Krishnan. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009. 240pp., Marten Zwanenburg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Killer Robots: Legality and Ethicality of Autonomous Weapons. By Armin Krishnan. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009. 240pp.

Kurt Mills On Governance, Order, And The International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik And A Cosmopolitan Court. Edited By Steven C. Roach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 289pp., Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Governance, Order, and the International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik and a Cosmopolitan Court. Edited by Steven C. Roach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 289pp.

Prevention And Complementarity In The International Criminal Court: A Positive Approach, Katharine A. Marshall

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

International Criminal Justice Must Not Only Be Done, It Must Be Seen To Be Done, Rhona Smith

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“[U]ntil a time in which the global governance structure is not reliant on states, humanity will continue to fail in its attempt to protect global human rights” (Eric Leonard, June 2008 Roundtable). Discourse across a range of disciplines (e.g. Roundtable comments by Landman in October 2008, and Thomson-Jensen and co-panelists in May 2007), irrespective of the methods of evaluation, conclude that the existing system of “human rights protection” fails those whose rights are heinously violated: millions die annually as a direct result of violations of basic human rights (food, clean water, adequate health); gross and systematic violations of human rights …

May Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders” by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal. World Affairs. Spring 2009.

Adjudication For The Adjudicators?, Rebecca Otis

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Coming from the perspective of one who roundly agrees with Kofi Annan that the creation of the International Criminal Court was “a gift of hope to future generations, and a giant step forward in the march towards universal human rights and the rule of law,” it is deeply troubling to read reports of corruption within the body of the UN. Julie Flint and Alex de Waal’s piece this month judiciously exposes yet another facet of questionable activities, namely at the heart of the ICC. Flint and de Waal’s piece quickly deepens into a long list of allegations against the personal …

Character Assassination In The Court Of Public Opinion, Tyler Moselle

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Alex de Waal and Julie Flint employ character assassination on Luis Moreno Ocampo in their World Affairs article “Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders.” Ironically, they are guilty of the same crime they accuse Ocampo of: being overly occupied with the court of public opinion. Or perhaps, that is the only court they as Sudan specialists, and Ocampo as the ICC’s first Prosecutor, have recourse to when attempting to right the wrongs of injustice.

The Prosecutor Of The Icc: Too Political, Not Political Enough, Or Both?, Chandra Lekha Sriram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Much of the criticism of the behavior of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, revolves around two apparently contradictory criticisms, although both may well be true: that he is too political, and that he is not political, or politically savvy, enough. Certainly, his rush to pursue high-profile indictments, contemporaneous with his pursuit of the “low-hanging fruit” (supposedly easy cases such as that of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo), suggest a prosecutor with sharp political instincts and a recognition of the need for a new institution to have a few “quick wins.” Yet, simultaneously, his blundering approach with respect to …

The International Criminal Court, Mark Gibney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I believe I speak for many when I say that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has not been anywhere near the institution that it was anticipated as being, and the latest manifestation of the ICC’s shortcomings is the humanitarian disaster that has ensued after the Court issued an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Bashir. Since no other UN action is anticipated, all that remains is to count the ever-growing number of Sudanese deaths that will result from what now appears to be a purely symbolic act that was all-too predictable.

Case Posed: But Can The Prosecution Rest?, Charli Carpenter

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Julie Flint and Alex de Waal have published a damning article about the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo which reads, by extension, as a trouncing of the entire institution. I’m not in the loop with the court’s day-to-day politics well enough to offer an informed counter-argument, so instead, by way of playing devil’s advocate, let me agree for argument’s sake with a number of the authors’ claims, hyperbolic and partisan though they sound at places, and then (again for argument’s sake), push back on the assumptions the authors make about the implications of those claims.

Victim Participation In Proceedings Before The International Criminal Court, Fiona Mckay

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Funding Justice: The Price Of War Crimes Trials, Rupert Skilbeck

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

De Facto V. De Jure Equality In The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia, Brianne Mcgonigle

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.