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Plea Bargaining And International Criminal Justice, Jenia I. Turner

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Over the last two decades, plea bargaining has spread beyond the countries where it originated — the United States and other common law jurisdictions — and has become a global phenomenon. Plea bargaining is spreading rapidly to civil law countries that previously viewed the practice with skepticism. And it has now arrived at international criminal courts.

While domestic plea bargaining is often limited to non-violent crimes, the international courts allow sentence negotiations for even the most heinous offenses, including genocide and crimes against humanity. Its use remains highly controversial, and debates about plea bargaining in international courts continue in court …

The Problem Of Purpose In International Criminal Law, Patrick J. Keenan

Michigan Journal of International Law

Keenan addresses the problem of purposes in this Article, with two principal objectives. The first is to sort through the competing theories to identify the core purposes of international criminal law. The second is to show how those purposes are or can be put into effect in actual cases. These questions are important because the purposes for which the law is deployed significantly influence how it is deployed. Prosecutors bring different kinds of cases and argue different theories based at least in part on what they hope to achieve. For example, in the domestic context, prosecutors might choose to prioritize …

Free Kick: Fifa’S Unintended Role In Illuminating Jurisdictional Gaps Of International Criminal Courts, Travis L. Marmara

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In the wake of the FIFA corruption scandal of 2015, certain realities have come to light. FIFA’s corruption knows no bounds, but fans of the sport will watch nonetheless. What is less apparent is that the two most prominent international criminal courts—the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) fail to have jurisdiction over the FIFA organization or its officials when they engage in white-collar crimes that sanction human rights abuses abroad. This Note examines how FIFA officials’ acceptance of Qatari bribes to host the 2022 World Cup exposed alarming jurisdictional inadequacies of the ICJ and …

Inciting Genocide With Words, Richard A. Wilson

Michigan Journal of International Law

During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, observers emphasized the role of media propaganda in inciting Rwandan Hutus to attack the Tutsi minority group, with one claiming that the primary tools of genocide were “the radio and the machete.” As a steady stream of commentators referred to “radio genocide” and “death by radio” and “the soundtrack to genocide,” a widespread consensus emerged that key responsibility for the genocide lay with the Rwandan media. Mathias Ruzindana, prosecution expert witness at the ICTR, supports this notion, writing, “In the case of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the effect of language was lethal . …

The Surprising Acquittals In The Gotovina And Perišić Cases: Is The Icty Appeals Chamber A Trial Chamber In Sheep’S Clothing?, Mark A. Summers

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

"Disillusioned Words Like Bullets Bark": Incitement To Genocide, Music, And The Trial Of Simon Bikindi, Robert H. Snyder

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

She Makes Me Ashamed To Be A Woman: The Genocide Conviction Of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 2011, Mark A. Drumbl

Mark A. Drumbl

In the nearly twenty years since 1994, the international community and the Rwandan government have pushed to hold individual perpetrators accountable for the genocide. Judicialization has occurred at multiple levels. Over ninety persons-those deemed most responsible-have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), an ad hoc institution established by the U.N. Security Council in November 1994. Approximately ten thousand individuals have been prosecuted in specialized chambers of national courts in Rwanda. According to the Rwandan government, nearly two million people have faced neo-traditional gacaca proceedings conducted by elected lay judges throughout the country. Gacaca proceedings concluded in …

Mediation As The Key To The Successful Transfer Of The Case Of Jean-Bosco Uwinkindi From The Jurisdiction Of The Ictr To The Republic Of Rwanda, Taylor Friedlander

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The article discusses on the history of the Rwanda Genocide of 1994 and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and different systems of justice that should be involved in prosecuting Jean Bosco Uwinkindi, the suspect of the mass killing at the Rwanda Genocide. It also mentions that three separate processes undertaken in Uwinkindi's gacaca court hearings, including truth-telling, truth-hearing, and truth-shaping.

Partners Or Rivals In Reconciliation? The Ictr And Rwanda’S Gacaca Courts, Leo C. Nwoye

San Diego International Law Journal

A major question for post-conflict governments to consider is how best to shape reconciliation efforts. This Article examines two transitional justice mechanisms that were utilized in Rwanda’s post genocide era and assesses their contributions to reconciliation. The two principal approaches which emerged in the Rwandan context were the establishment of International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), via the international political community whilst grassroots efforts within Rwanda were channeled through the gacaca court system. While each of these systems, though unintended and incoherent hybrid justice strategies, possessed strengths and weaknesses, this legal pluralist structure nevertheless yielded positive reconciliation results.

The Article …

Procedural Steps Addressing Sexual And Gender-Based Violence: The Legacy Of The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda And Its Application In The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Valerie Oosterveld

Law Publications

This paper examines certain procedural strategies adopted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to encourage and support victims of, and witnesses to, sexual and gender-based violence and traces their application in the Special Court for Sierra Leone. First, the paper explores specific methods used to protect the identity of victims and witnesses. Second, this paper considers steps taken by the ICTR to provide courtroom support to victims and witnesses. Finally, this paper surveys evidentiary approaches meant to reduce the retraumatization of sexual violence victims. The ICTR indeed has a legacy in these respects, somewhat positive and somewhat flawed.

The Surprising Acquittals In The Gotovina And Perisic Cases: Is The Icty Appeals Chamber A Trial Chamber In Sheep's Clothing?, Mark A. Summers

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

She Makes Me Ashamed To Be A Woman: The Genocide Conviction Of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 2011, Mark A. Drumbl

Michigan Journal of International Law

In the nearly twenty years since 1994, the international community and the Rwandan government have pushed to hold individual perpetrators accountable for the genocide. Judicialization has occurred at multiple levels. Over ninety persons-those deemed most responsible-have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), an ad hoc institution established by the U.N. Security Council in November 1994. Approximately ten thousand individuals have been prosecuted in specialized chambers of national courts in Rwanda. According to the Rwandan government, nearly two million people have faced neo-traditional gacaca proceedings conducted by elected lay judges throughout the country. Gacaca proceedings concluded in …

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 …

Infusing Due Process And The Principle Of Legality Into Contempt Proceedings Before The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia Ad The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda, Gwendolyn Stamper

Michigan Law Review

Contempt proceedings before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda suffer from two procedural defects: the hearings run afoul of the principle of legality and fail to afford calibrated procedural protection for accused contemnors. First, this Note contends that these two tribunals properly rely on their inherent powers to codify procedural rules for contempt proceedings. However the tribunals' inherent power to prosecute contempt does not allow the courts to punish contemptuous conduct that has not been explicitly proscribed. Such a prosecution contravenes the principle of legality, which provides that criminal responsibility may …

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 …

Obstacles On The Road To Gender Justice: The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda As Object Lesson , Beth Van Schaak

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Pace Of International Criminal Justice, Jean Galbraith

Michigan Journal of International Law

For all the discussion, the pace of international criminal justice has not received careful consideration. Instead, there is uncritical acceptance that international criminal tribunals move slowly, and debate only over whether this slowness is inevitable and whether the tribunals are nonetheless worthwhile. But given how central the pace of international criminal justice is to considerations of its effectiveness-and indeed its legitimacy-it is crucial to understand both what pace should be reasonably expected and what pace actually occurs. This Article undertakes this project.

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.

War Tales And War Trials, Patricia M. Wald

Michigan Law Review

In this foreword, I will compare my experiences as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the work of war crimes tribunals generally, with a few of the recurrent themes in epic tales of war. Books and trials strive to educate and to persuade their audiences of the barbarity of war and its antipathy to the most fundamental norms of a humane society.3 War crimes tribunals began with Nuremberg and have proliferated in the past fifteen years. These tribunals were established to try and to punish individuals for violations of international humanitarian law ("IHL")-the so-called …

Deconstructing International Criminal Law, Kevin Jon Heller

Michigan Law Review

After nearly fifty years of post-Nuremberg hibernation, international criminal tribunals have returned to the world stage with a vengeance. The Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ("ICTY") in 1993 and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ("ICTR") in 1994. Hybrid domestic-international tribunals have been established in Sierra Leone (2000), East Timor (2000), Kosovo (2000), Cambodia (2003), Bosnia (2005), and Lebanon (2007). And, of course, the international community's dream of a permanent tribunal was finally realized in 2002, when the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ("ICC") entered into force. This unprecedented proliferation of international …

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, …

Balancing Lives: Individual Accountability And The Death Penalty As Punishment For Genocide (Lessons From Rwanda), Melynda J. Price

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this Article is not to answer the question of whether the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for genocide. One could safely argue that there is an emerging norm in international law against the death penalty, but individual countries have maintained their right to use the death penalty and continue to do so in code and in practice. This Article, using Rwanda as a case study, evaluates the real outcomes of such discrepancies in punishment at the domestic and international level, and the ability of both approaches to bring justice to the victims of genocide. Both domestic …

Globalization And Genocidalism: Fictional Discourse Without Borders (For Fun And Profit), Aleksandar Jokić, Tiphaine Dickson

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this essay we explore the relationship between globalization and genocidalism. “Globalization” is understood as “freedom and ability of individuals and firms to initiate voluntary economic transactions with residents of other countries,” while “genocidalism” is defined as “(i) the purposeful neglect to attribute responsibility for genocide in cases when overwhelming evidence exists, and as (ii) the energetic attributions of “genocide” in less then clear cases without considering available and convincing opposing evidence and argumentation.”

The hypothesis that we defend here as explanatory of globalization’s “surprising” failure to live up to its often repeated theoretical promise that it is not a …

Cultural Relativism In International War Crimes Prosecutions: The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda, Ida L. Bostian

ExpressO

The tension between universalism and cultural relativism lies at the heart of war crimes and war crimes prosecutions. While cultural relativism arguments should never be the basis for ignoring war crimes outside of the West (particularly in Africa), neither should the international community adopt a radical universalist approach that ignores the unique circumstances underlying each war crimes prosecution. The establishment of the ICTR, over the objection of the post-genocide Rwandan government, probably erred on the side of universalism by ignoring the legitimate needs of the Rwandan people. Nevertheless, the ICTR has appropriately adopted a “mild” cultural relativist approach in its …

Pluralizing International Criminal Justice, Mark A. Drumbl

Michigan Law Review

From Nuremberg to The Hague scours the institutions of international criminal justice in order to examine their legitimacy and effectiveness. This collection of essays is edited by Philippe Sands, an eminent authority on public international law and professor at University College London. The five essays derive from an equal number of public lectures held in London between April and June 2002. The essays - concise and in places informal - carefully avoid legalese and arcania. Taken together, they cover an impressive spectrum of issues. Read individually, however, each essay is ordered around one or two well-tailored themes, thereby ensuring analytic …

From The Nuremberg Charter To The Rome Statute: Defining The Elements Of Crimes Against Humanity, Mohamed Elewa Badar

San Diego International Law Journal

The purpose of this study is to examine the past and present contours of the prohibition of "crimes against humanity", analyzing and scrutinizing the essential elements of this crime, with a view to obtaining and drawing together basic criteria that could eventually guide the adjudication of this offence. Furthermore, this clarification of "crimes against humanity" is particularly timely with respect to the soon functioning International Criminal Court (ICC).

Accountability In The Aftermath Of Rwanda's Genocide, Jason Strain, Elizabeth Keyes

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the span of 100 days in 1994, almost one million Rwandans died in a genocide that left Rwandan society traumatized and its institutions in disarray. The genocide implicated not only the actual instigators and killers, who came from all levels of Rwandan society, but also the culture of impunity that had thrived in Rwanda for decades. This culture of impunity and inaction in the face of atrocities eerily mirrored the international community's failure to intervene to prevent or respond to the genocide. The genocide provoked a process of reflection within Rwanda and the broader international community about how the …

Blending Criminal Procedure At The Ad Hoc Tribunals, William A. Schabas

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of International Criminal Evidence by Richard May & Marieke Wierda

Sexual Violence As Genocide: The Developing Law Of The International Criminal Tribunals And The International Criminal Court, Jonathan M.H. Short

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This note will explore the treatment of the two primary violent sexual acts, rape and forced pregnancy, in modern international criminal law; more specifically in its treatment as genocide. The woman as an individual is the primary sufferer of sexual violence during armed conflict, however sexual violence is a calculated means by which perpetrators seek to destroy an entire ethnic group. Sexual violence is both an attack against the woman and an attack against the ethnic group, and should be prosecuted as such. While crimes against individuals are best prosecuted as crimes against humanity or under domestic law, crimes committed …

Transfer V. Extradition: A Discussion Of The Interpretation And Authority Of The Transfer Provisions Of The Ictr Statute And Rules., Alexander C. Reinhardt

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.