Law Commons^™

Accountability For “Crimes Against The Laws Of Humanity In Boxer China: The Experiment With International Justice At Paoting-Fu, Benjamin E. Brockman-Hawe

Benjamin E. Brockman-Hawe

This paper covers a significant but generally unknown and understudied caesure in the development of international criminal law occurred during the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-Western and anti‑Christian peasant insurgency mostly located in Northeast China. During the early stages of the Chinese intervention, at a time when the relief force was still bogged down in Beijing, approximately seventy Christians were gruesomely murdered in Paoting-fu. Securing and “punishing” the city became a priority for Western military forces, who began the necessary short march southward once Beijing’s Legation Quarter was cleared of Boxers. The Poating-fu operation could have taken the form of the …

Dealing With Dangerous Women: Sexual Assault Under Cover Of National Security Laws In India, Surabhi Chopra Prof.

Surabhi Chopra Prof.

DEALING WITH DANGEROUS WOMEN: SEXUAL ASSAULT UNDER COVER OF NATIONAL SECURITY LAWS IN INDIA

This article examines violence against women suspected of being security threats in India’s internal conflict zones, one of the very few scholarly works to do so.

I focus on two cases in particular. In 2004, Thangjam Manorama was arrested by paramilitaries on suspicion of belonging to a violent separatist group, and found raped and murdered several hours later. I look at her family’s attempts to hold the armed forces accountable for her death. I also look at the ongoing criminal prosecution of Soni Sori, an indigenous …

Trading Police For Soldiers: Has The Posse Comitatus Act Helped Militarize Our Police And Set The Stage For More Fergusons?, Arthur Rizer

Arthur L. Rizer III

The recent protests, police overreaction, and subsequent riots in Ferguson, Missouri, demonstrated to Americans and to the world the true extent of the militarization of police in communities across the United States. Deployed throughout Ferguson, in preemption and then in response to protesters’ actions, were ranks of heavily armed, flak-jacketed, camouflage uniformed police standing atop and around armored personnel carriers with machine guns mounted. Such a response evidences that the line between police and soldiers in communities is blurring, if not blurred. This militarization is, in part, a result of a principle Americans have held dear since our founding, that …

Back To The Future With The Uniform Code Of Military Justice: The Need To Recalibrate The Relationship Between The Military Justice System, Due Process, And Good Order And Discipline, Anthony J. Ghiotto

Anthony J. Ghiotto

In recent years, the military justice system has come under increased Congressional and public scrutiny. Driving much of this increased scrutiny is the issue of sexual assault. The dramatic increase in reported sexual assaults, coupled with the military’s response, resulted in public officials calling for dramatic reform of the military justice system. These calls for reform included limiting, and even removing, the role commanders play in the military justice system. The military departments must proceed carefully, though, with these calls for reform. Dramatic reforms designed to correct the apparent flaws in the military justice system may in turn undermine the …

U.S. Institutionalized Torture With Impunity: Examining Rape And Sexual Abuse In Custody Through The Icty Jurisprudence, Allison Rogne

Allison Rogne

It is a well-established principle, both domestically and internationally, that rape is torture when suffered as part of confinement. It is also well documented, both domestically and internationally, that rape is rampant in U.S. prisons. And it is well established, both domestically and internationally, that those who torture should not do so with impunity, that that impunity is an affront to civilization and the human rights principles to which we all strive. And yet, in U.S. prisons, shocking numbers of women are systematically raped and sexually abused by those that would rehabilitate them. Female prisoners are victims of vaginal and …