Human Rights Law Commons^™

Syria: Not Libya, But Let’S Treat It Like It Is Anyway, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The articles by Condoleezza Rice and Simon Adams advance a series of disquieting possibilities for the future of Syria if the US and other states fail to act. While I am sympathetic to the urgency with which both writers advance their claims, there is much strained and stretched logic—as well as outright naiveté—in both authors' arguments, especially Rice's.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Claire Grandison, Benjamin Watson, Erin Neff, Sara Harlow, Michelle Flash

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Victim Participation At The International Criminal Court And The Extraordinary Chambers In The Courts Of Cambodia: A Feminist Project, Susana Sacouto

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

The question this Article poses is whether victim participation--one of the most recent developments in international criminal law--has increased the visibility of the actual lived experience of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in the context of war, mass violence, or repression. Under the Rome Statute, victims of the world's most serious crimes were given unprecedented rights to participate in proceedings before the Court. Nearly a decade later, a similar scheme was established to allow victims to participate as civil parties in the proceedings before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC or Extraordinary Chambers), a court created …

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Claire Grandison, Sofia Vivero, Andra Nicolescu, Danielle Dean, Benjamin Watson

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

International Criminal Court's Protection Of Women: The Hands Of Justice At Work, Tina R. Karkera

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Liberal Legal Norms Meet Collective Criminality, John D. Ciorciari

Michigan Law Review

International criminal law ("ICL") tends to focus on the same question asked by the Cambodian survivor above: who was ultimately most responsible? Focusing on the culpability of senior leaders has powerful appeal. It resonates with a natural human tendency to personify misdeeds and identify a primary locus for moral blame. It also serves political ends by putting a face on mass crimes, decapitating the old regime, and leaving room for reconciliation at lower levels. But what happens when smoking guns do not point clearly toward high-ranking officials? And how can the law address the fact that most atrocities are committed …

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Slava Kuperstein, Lindsay Roberts, John Coleman, Beka Feathers, Anna Naimark, Ivan Carpio

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts , Slava Kuperstein, Lindsay Roberts, Catlin Meade, Elizabeth Francis, Ivan Carpio

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Claire Grandison, Benjamin Watson, Brynn Weinstein, Adam Dembling, Yaritza Velez, Michelle Flash

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Anna Maitland, Shahroo Yazdani, Cyrena Khoury, Paul Rinefierd, Chris Valvardi, John Coleman

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Ivan Carpio, Lindsay Roberts, Zsofia Young, Christopher Tansey, Paul Rinefierd, Slava Kuperstein

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Much Ado About Non-State Actors: The Vanishing Relevance Of State Affiliation In International Criminal Law, John Cerone

San Diego International Law Journal

Much has been made recently of the deficiencies of international law in grappling with violence perpetrated by non-state actors. From transnational terrorist networks to private security contractors (PSCs), organizations that are not officially part of the apparatus of any state are increasingly engaged in protracted episodes of intense violence, giving rise to questions of accountability under international law. Does international law provide rules applicable to such conduct? While the repression of crime, especially that perpetrated by non-state actors, has traditionally been left to the internal law of states, most international jurists will point to the ancient rules of international law …

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Shaleen Brunsdale, Kara Karlson, Jennifer Goldsmith, Laura Jarvis, Megan Chapman

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Investigation And Prosecution Of Sexual And Gender-Based Crimes Before The International Criminal Court, Diane Lupig

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Human Rights In Latin America: Introduction, Christina Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

This Topical Research Digest on revisiting human rights in Latin America covers a wide range of subjects, both country specific and thematic, but has as its underlying theme the necessary protection of the human rights of vulnerable groups, whether they are women, children, lesbians, gay men, indigenous peoples, landless peasants, etc. This survey of literature on revisiting human rights in Latin America includes a rich selection of documents from international organizations, international human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a plethora of American and foreign journals.

International Justice And International Politics: Intertwined Paths, David Penna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation. By Victor Peskin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 272 pp.

and

Building the International Criminal Court. By Benjamin N. Schiff. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 304 pp.

and

The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II. By Yuma Totani. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center / Harvard University Press, 2008. 335 pp.

Importance Of Effective Investigation Of Sexual Violence And Gender-Based Crimes At The International Criminal Court, Susana Sácouto, Katherine Cleary

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Shaleen Brunsdale, Ellie Stevenson, Jenn Goldsmith, Peter Tran, Alexia Brooks, Katherine Anne Cleary

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The International Criminal Court And The Prevention Of Atrocities: Predicting The Court's Impact, James F. Alexander

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Distinction And Loss Of Civilian Protection In International Armed Conflicts, Yoram Dinstein

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Rape At Rome: Feminist Interventions In The Criminalization Of Sex-Related Violence In Positive International Criminal Law, Janet Halley

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article examines the work of organized feminism in the formation of new international criminal tribunals over the course of the 1990s. It focuses on the statutes establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It offers a description of the evolving organizational style of feminists involved in the legislative processes leading to the establishment of these courts, and a description of their reform agenda read against the outcomes in each court-establishing statute. At each stage, the Article counts up the feminist victories and defeats, …

Updates From The International Criminal Courts, Anna Katherine Drake, Andrea Mateus, Emily Pasternak, Rachel Katzman, Katherine Anne Cleary, Solomon Shinerock, Howard Shneider

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International And Internationalized Criminal Courts, Shaleen Brunsdale, Rita Espinoza, Sarah Venti, Katherine Anne Cleary

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Obligation To Use Force To Stop Acts Of Genocide: An Overview Of Legal Precedents, Customary Norms, And State Responsibility, Joshua M. Kagan

San Diego International Law Journal

Though the Genocide Convention was created to "liberate mankind from [the] odious scourge" of genocide, the dreams of its drafters have still not come to fruition. The commission of genocide, widely considered the most appalling of all crimes, did not end with the signing and ratification of the Convention in 1948. Genocide continues in the world today. While its sentiments were noble and its aims commendable, the Genocide Convention as it is interpreted and applied today is insufficient to stop the commission of genocide in the world. In order to rid the world of this crime, a new interpretation of …

Updates From The International Criminal Courts, Mariam Ahmedani, Anne Heindel, Jeffrey Forbes, Robin Murphy, Leslie Thompson

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Updates From The International Criminal Courts, Elizabeth J. Rushing, Nick Leddy, Anne Heindel, Angela Edman, Bjorn Sorenson

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

David P. Forsythe On The United States And The Rule Of Law In International Affairs By John F. Murphy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 367pp., David P. Forsythe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The United States and the Rule of Law in International Affairs by John F. Murphy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 367pp.

Securing A Journalist's Testimonial Privilege In The International Criminal Court, Anastasia Heeger

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article argues that given the unique and significant contribution of journalists to uncovering and documenting war crimes, the ICC should amend its evidentiary rules to recognize a qualified journalist's privilege. In doing so, the ICC should clearly identify who may benefit from such a privilege, clarify a procedure for balancing the need of reportorial testimony against prosecution and defense interests, and, lastly provide for mandatory consultations between the court and affected news organizations or journalists before allowing the issuance of a subpoena. Such clarity will benefit not only journalists working in war zones and the ICC, but will provide …

The Prohibition Of Widespread Rape As A Jus Cogens, Dean Adams

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment explains why the prohibition of widespread rape should be recognized as a jus cogens through analyses of the failure of existing international legal instruments, advances within international law towards the universal prohibition of widespread rape, and policy reasons for classifying widespread rape as a jus cogens. In doing so, this comment will demonstrate the particular timeliness of this topic by reviewing the use of widespread rape in several countries through the 1990s, the widespread rape presently occurring in Kenya, and the emerging reports from Iraq of rape committed at the hands of the Saddam Hussein regime. Finally, this …

From Indifference To Engagement: Bystanders And International Criminal Justice, Laurel E. Fletcher

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article contributes to the scholarship on transitional justice by examining how the legal architecture and operation of international criminal law constricts bystanders as subjects of jurisprudence, considering the effects of this limitation on the ability of international tribunals to promote their social and political goals, and proposing institutional reforms needed to address this limitation.