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Full-Text Articles in Criminal Law

The Ahistoricism Of Legal Pluralism In International Criminal Law, James G. Stewart, Asad Kiyani Jan 2017

The Ahistoricism Of Legal Pluralism In International Criminal Law, James G. Stewart, Asad Kiyani

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International criminal law (“ICL”) is legally plural, not a single unified body of norms. As a whole, trials for international crimes involve a complex dance between international and domestic criminal law, the specificities of which vary markedly from one forum to the next. To date, many excellent scholars have suggested that the resulting doctrinal diversity in ICL should be tolerated and managed under the banner of Legal Pluralism. To our minds, these scholars omit a piece of the puzzle that has major implications for their theory – the law’s history. Neglecting the historical context of the international and national criminal …

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The Strangely Familiar History Of The Unitary Theory Of Perpetration, James G. Stewart Jan 2016

The Strangely Familiar History Of The Unitary Theory Of Perpetration, James G. Stewart

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A unitary theory of perpetration is one that does not espouse different legal standards for different forms of participating in crime. In this Article, I pay homage to Professor Damaška’s influence on my work and career by reiterating my earlier arguments for a unitary theory of perpetration in international criminal law. Whereas my earlier work defended the unitary theory in abstract terms then for international criminal law in particular, this Article looks to the history of the unitary theory in five national systems that have abandoned differentiated systems like that currently in force internationally in favor of a unitary variant. …

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The Turn To Corporate Criminal Liability For International Crimes: Transcending The Alien Tort Statute, James G. Stewart Jan 2014

The Turn To Corporate Criminal Liability For International Crimes: Transcending The Alien Tort Statute, James G. Stewart

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In November 2013, Swiss authorities announced a criminal investigation into one of the world’s largest gold refineries on the basis that the company committed a war crime. The Swiss investigation comes a matter of months after the US Supreme Court decided in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. that allegations like these could not give rise to civil liability under the aegis of the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). Intriguingly, however, the Swiss case is founded on a much earlier American precedent. In 1909, the U.S. Supreme Court approved the novel practice of prosecuting companies. Unlike the Court’s position in Kiobel …

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Migrant Smuggling: Canada's Response To A Global Criminal Enterprise, Benjamin Perrin Jan 2013

Migrant Smuggling: Canada's Response To A Global Criminal Enterprise, Benjamin Perrin

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Migrant smuggling is a dangerous, sometimes deadly, criminal activity. Failing to respond effectively to migrant smuggling and deter it will risk emboldening those who engage in this illicit enterprise, which generates proceeds for organized crime and criminal networks, funds terrorism and facilitates clandestine terrorist travel, endangers the lives and safety of smuggled migrants, undermines border security, and undermines the integrity and fairness of immigration systems. Introduced in the Canadian House of Commons in June 2011, the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act (Bill C-4) includes proposed amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that would enhance …

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Ten Reasons For Adopting A Universal Concept Of Participation In Atrocity, James G. Stewart Jan 2013

Ten Reasons For Adopting A Universal Concept Of Participation In Atrocity, James G. Stewart

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The legal doctrine that assign blame for international crimes are numerous, unclear, ever-changing and often conceptually problematic. In this Essay, I question the prudence of retaining the radical doctrinal heterogeneity that, in large part, produces this state of disarray. Instead of tolerating different standards of participation across customary international law, the ICC statute and national systems of criminal law, I argue for a universal concept of participation that would apply whenever an international crime is charged, regardless of the jurisdiction hearing the case. Although I have argued elsewhere that a unitary theory of perpetration should serve this role, I here …

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The End Of 'Modes Of Liability' For International Crimes, James G. Stewart Jan 2012

The End Of 'Modes Of Liability' For International Crimes, James G. Stewart

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Modes of liability, such as ordering, instigation, superior responsibility and joint criminal liability, are arguably the most discussed topics in modern international criminal justice. In recent years, a wide range of scholars have rebuked some of these modes of liability for compromising basic concepts in liberal notions of blame attribution, thereby reducing international defendants to mere instruments for the promotion of wider socio-political objectives. Critics attribute this willingness to depart from orthodox concepts of criminal responsibility to international forces, be they interpretative styles typical of human rights or aspirations associated with transitional justice. Strangely, however, complicity has avoided these criticisms …

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Overdetermined Atrocities, James G. Stewart Jan 2012

Overdetermined Atrocities, James G. Stewart

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An event is overdetermined if there are multiple sufficient causes for its occurrence. A firing squad is a classic illustration. If eight soldiers are convened to execute a prisoner, they can all walk away afterwards in the moral comfort that “I didn’t really make a difference; it would have happened without me.” The difficulty is, if we are only responsible for making a difference to harm occurring in the world, none of the soldiers is responsible for the death — none made, either directly or through others, an essential contribution to its occurrence. In many respects, this dilemma is the …

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Migrant Smuggling: Canada's Response To A Global Criminal Enterprise: With An Assessment Of The Preventing Human Smugglers From Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act (Bill C-4), Benjamin Perrin Oct 2011

Migrant Smuggling: Canada's Response To A Global Criminal Enterprise: With An Assessment Of The Preventing Human Smugglers From Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act (Bill C-4), Benjamin Perrin

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Migrant smuggling is a dangerous, sometimes deadly, criminal activity which cannot be rationalized, justified, or excused. From both a supply and demand side, failing to respond effectively to migrant smuggling and deter it will risk emboldening those who engage in this illicit enterprise, which generates proceeds for organized crime and criminal networks, funds terrorism and facilitates clandestine terrorist travel; endangers the lives and safety of smuggled migrants, undermines border security, with consequences for the Canada/U.S. border, and undermines the integrity and fairness of Canada’s mmigration system. Introduced in Parliament in June, 2011, the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration …

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Corporate War Crimes: Prosecuting Pillage Of Natural Resources, James G. Stewart Jan 2010

Corporate War Crimes: Prosecuting Pillage Of Natural Resources, James G. Stewart

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Pillage means theft during war. Although the prohibition against pillage dates to antiquity, pillaging is a modern war crime that can be enforced before international and domestic criminal courts. Following World War II, several businessmen were convicted for the pillage of natural resources. And yet modern commercial actors are seldom held accountable for their role in the illegal exploitation of natural resources from modern conflict zones, even though pillage is prosecuted as a matter of course in other contexts. This book offers a doctrinal road-map of the law governing pillage as applied to the illegal exploitation of natural resources by …

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The Future Of The Grave Breaches Regime: Segregate, Assimilate Or Abandon, James G. Stewart Jan 2009

The Future Of The Grave Breaches Regime: Segregate, Assimilate Or Abandon, James G. Stewart

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Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions are one type of war crime. In this Article, I argue that the grave breaches regime has three possible futures. In the first, the regime remains segregated from other categories of war crimes in deference to the historical development of these crimes. This future, however, is one that will see a relatively dramatic decline in the use of grave breaches in practice, primarily because other offences cover the same acts more efficiently. In the second possible future, the grave breaches are entirely abandoned, but this eventuality seems both improbable and undesirable. Even though judicial …

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Humanitarian Assistance And The Private Security Debate: An International Humanitarian Law Perspective, Benjamin Perrin Jan 2008

Humanitarian Assistance And The Private Security Debate: An International Humanitarian Law Perspective, Benjamin Perrin

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The changing nature of armed conflict has had a dramatic impact on the security risks facing humanitarian personnel. Historically, the safety of humanitarian aid delivery was secured through the consent of the relevant Parties to the conflict. However, non-international ethnically-motivated armed conflicts, failed and failing states, and insurgency-based warfare have fundamentally challenged the viability of this traditional security paradigm. In confronting today's complex security climate, humanitarian organizations are faced with a diverse menu of alternatives to enhance their security. The debate over armed protection that has sharply divided the humanitarian community is explored in this paper, including a critique of …

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Searching For Law While Seeking Justice: The Difficulties Of Enforcing International Humanitarian Law In International Criminal Trials, Benjamin Perrin Jan 2008

Searching For Law While Seeking Justice: The Difficulties Of Enforcing International Humanitarian Law In International Criminal Trials, Benjamin Perrin

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International criminal law finds itself at the confluence of public international law, international humanitarian law, human rights law and national criminal laws. Our understanding of the interrelationship between these sources of law has been hampered by the conventional wisdom that public international law doctrines applicable to disputes between states can be readily transposed to the international criminal prosecution of individuals. A detailed analysis of selected decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda demonstrates that these tribunals could not simply rely on classical sources of public international law to resolve difficult …

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An Emerging International Criminal Law Tradition: Gaps In Applicable Law And Transnational Common Laws, Benjamin Perrin Jan 2007

An Emerging International Criminal Law Tradition: Gaps In Applicable Law And Transnational Common Laws, Benjamin Perrin

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This thesis critically examines the origins and development of international criminal lave to identify the defining features of this emerging legal tradition. It critically evaluates the experimental approach taken in Article 21 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which attempts to codify an untested normative super-structure to guide this legal tradition. International criminal law is a hybrid tradition which seeks legitimacy and answers to difficult questions by drawing on other established legal traditions. Its development at the confluence of public international law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and national criminal laws has resulted in gaps …

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Towards A Single Definition Of Armed Conflict In International Humanitarian Law: A Critique Of Internationalized Armed Conflict, James G. Stewart Jan 2003

Towards A Single Definition Of Armed Conflict In International Humanitarian Law: A Critique Of Internationalized Armed Conflict, James G. Stewart

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The strict division of international humanitarian law into rules applicable in international armed conflict and those relevant to armed conflicts not of an international nature is almost universally criticized. Even though attempts to abandon the distinction were made at every stage of negotiation of the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols, calls for a single body of international humanitarian law have since died out. This article revives those calls by highlighting the inadequacies of the current dichotomy’s treatment of internationalized armed conflicts, namely, armed conflicts that involve internal and international elements. It concludes that the law developed to determine this “internationalization” …

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