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The Penalties For Piracy: An Empirical Study Of National Prosecution Of International Crime, Eugene Kontorovich
The Penalties For Piracy: An Empirical Study Of National Prosecution Of International Crime, Eugene Kontorovich
Faculty Working Papers
This Article examines the sentences imposed by courts around the world in prosecutions of Somali pirates captured on the high seas. Somali piracy has become perhaps the highest-volume area of international criminal law by national courts. As with other international crimes, international law is silent on the subject of penalties. The large number of parallel prosecutions of offenders from a single international "situation" offers an empirical window into the interactions between international and national law in municipal courts; into factors affecting punishment for international crimes and the hierarchy of international offenses; and of course into potential concerns with the current …
Courting Genocide: The Unintended Effects Of Humanitarian Intervention, Jide Nzelibe
Courting Genocide: The Unintended Effects Of Humanitarian Intervention, Jide Nzelibe
Faculty Working Papers
Invoking memories and imagery from the Holocaust and other German atrocities during World War II, many contemporary commentators and politicians believe that the international community has an affirmative obligation to deter and incapacitate perpetrators of humanitarian atrocities. Today, the received wisdom is that a legalistic approach, which combines humanitarian interventions with international criminal prosecutions targeting perpetrators, will help realize the post-World War II vision of making atrocities a crime of the past. This Article argues, in contrast, that humanitarian interventions are often likely to create unintended, and sometimes perverse, incentives among both the victims and perpetrators of atrocities. The problem …