Criminal Procedure Commons^™

The International Criminal Court Ten Years Later: Appraisal And Prospects, Joseph M. Isanga

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The International Criminal Court (ICC) faces significant challenges in achieving its objectives of deterrence, retribution, and ending impunity, primarily due to slow procedures, lack of state cooperation, and perceptions of bias. While the ICC has made qualitative contributions to international criminal law, its effectiveness is undermined by procedural inefficiencies, political interference, and limited enforcement mechanisms. The court's reliance on the complementarity principle and state cooperation highlights the tension between its judicial and political roles, with its future success contingent on addressing these systemic issues.

Due Process In Islamic Criminal Law, Sadiq Reza

Articles & Chapters

Rules and principles of due process in criminal law—how to, and how not to, investigate crime and criminal suspects, prosecute the accused, adjudicate criminal cases, and punish the convicted—appear in the traditional sources of Islamic law: the Quran, the Sunna, and classical jurisprudence. But few of these rules and principles are followed in the modern-day practice of Islamic criminal law. Rather, states that claim to practice Islamic criminal law today mostly follow laws and practices of criminal procedure that were adopted from European nations in the twentieth century, without reference to the constraints and protections of Islamic law itself. To …

Does Living By The Sword Mean Dying By The Sword, Charles Chernor Jalloh

Articles

This article examines the right to self-representation in international criminal law, and the common challenges posed for judges effectuating that right in international criminal courts. Using a comparative law approach, the paper demonstrates how the interpretation of that right initially borrowed heavily from U.S. common law and later European civil law to address the problems caused by self-representing, disruptive, and uncooperative defendants. Although the right to self-representation is a Sixth Amendment right in U.S. law, and an equally fundamental one in international law, the author contends that this right seems better in theory than in practice. Indeed, since no self-representing …

Proceedings Of The Seventh International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, Recent Developments In International Criminal Law: 2012–2013, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This publication is based on Professor Drumbl’s keynote address on August 27, 2013 at the Seventh International Humanitarian Law Dialogs held in Chautauqua, New York.

‘Germans Are The Lords And Poles Are The Servants’: The Trial Of Arthur Greiser In Poland, 1946, In The Hidden Histories Of War Crimes Trials (Kevin Jon Heller & Gerry Simpson Eds., 2013), Mark A. Drumbl

Books and Chapters

In the aftermath of World War II, the first conviction of an influential Nazi German official for the crime of waging aggressive war was delivered not by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, but, rather, by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland sitting in Poznán. The accused was Arthur Greiser. Beginning in September 1939, Greiser served as Gauleiter (i.e. Governor) of the Warthegau, a large expanse of western Poland that had been illegally annexed to Nazi Germany. The Warthegau's residents suffered brutally under Greiser's boot.

The Polish Tribunal sentenced Greiser to death on July 9, 1946. His execution by public …

Defying Gravity: The Development Of Standards In The International Prosecution Of International Atrocity Crimes, Matthew H. Charity

Faculty Scholarship

The International Criminal Court (the “ICC”), now one decade old, is still in the process of setting norms as to scope, jurisdiction, and other issues. One issue that has thus far defied resolution is a key issue of jurisdiction: the place of complementarity in deciding whether certain criminal issues impacting international standards or interests should be decided before the ICC or national tribunals. Although the Rome Statute crystallizes definitions of core international crimes that may be tried before the ICC, the process of determining whether to leave jurisdiction with the nation or allowing jurisdiction to the ICC continues to lack …

Military Commissions And The Paradigm Of Prevention, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Why military commissions? Given the United States’s track record of success in trying terrorists in civilian criminal courts, and the availability of courts-martial to try war crimes, why has the United States government, under both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations alike, insisted on proceeding through untested military commissions instead? In May 2009, President Obama defended military commissions with the following claims:

Military commissions have a history in the United States dating back to George Washington and the Revolutionary War. They are an appropriate venue for trying detainees for violations of the laws of war. They allow for …

Due Process In Islamic Criminal Law, Sadiq Reza

Faculty Scholarship

Rules and principles of due process in criminal law--how to, and how not to, investigate crime and criminal suspects, prosecute the accused, adjudicate criminal cases, and punish the convicted--appear in the traditional sources of Islamic law: the Quran, the Sunna, and classical jurisprudence. But few of these rules and principles are followed in the modern-day practice of Islamic criminal law. Rather, states that claim to practice Islamic criminal law today mostly follow laws and practices of criminal procedure that were adopted from European nations in the twentieth century, without reference to the constraints and protections of Islamic law itself. To …

Introductory Note To Prosecutor V. Germain Katanga: Judgment On The Appeal Against The Decision Of Trial Chamber Ii Of 21 November 2012 (Int'l Crim. Ct.), Steven Arrigg Koh

Faculty Scholarship

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the case of Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga held that a Trial Chamber, during the deliberations stage of trial proceedings, may, pursuant to Regulation 55 of the Regulations of the Court (Regulation 55), give notice of a possible modification of the legal characterization of the facts in its final Judgment, so long as the trial remains fair. This Introductory Note will provide background on the Katanga case and Regulation 55, summarize the Appeals Chamber's Judgment, and discuss the implications of this ruling.

Panel Iv: Challenges To Proving Cases Of Torture Before The Committee Against Torture, Juan E. Mendez

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

United States V. Alvarez-Machain: Kidnapping In The "War On Drugs" - A Matter Of Executive Discretion Or Lawlessness?, Michael G. Mckinnon

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Legacy Of Rux V. Republic Of Sudan And The Future Of The Judicial War On Terror, Chad G. Marzen

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article examines the legal battles of the families of U.S. sailors killed in the 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing, focusing on their efforts to hold Sudan liable under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA) and the state sponsor of terrorism exception. It explores the procedural history of the Rux and Kumar cases, highlighting the complexities of applying the FSIA and the impact of legislative changes, such as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2008, on terrorism-related litigation. The analysis underscores the challenges in balancing judicial authority with legislative intent, particularly in cases involving retroactivity and res judicata.

The Gacaca Experiment: Rwanda's Restorative Dispute Resolution Response To The 1994 Genocide, Jessica Raper

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Since its rise to power in July of 1994, the Rwandan government has been committed to prosecuting all those accused of genocide. To prosecute the approximately 130,000 defendants, Rwanda has adopted a program called gacaca, based on Rwanda's traditional customary dispute resolution system. The gacaca law provides a reconciliation component that allows defendants to trade confessions of past genocide crimes for indemnification, as well as a prosecution component that holds the most serious offenders accountable in a Western style prosecution in a formal court of law. One of the main goals of gacaca is to end the so-called "culture …

Legitimizing International Criminal Justice: The Importance Of Process Control, Nancy Amoury Combs

Michigan Journal of International Law

The last two decades have witnessed an astounding transformation of the international legal landscape as the international community has created a series of courts and tribunals to prosecute those accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. As a consequence of this international institution building, prosecutions are currently underway for crimes committed across the globe: in the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cambodia, among other places. These international criminal tribunals and particularly the first modern tribunal- the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)-have undergone two significant evolutions. One of these …

Africa And The International Criminal Court, Charles C. Jalloh

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Comparative Practice Of The International Tribunals: How Do Other International Tribunals Deal With Witnesses Who Have Provided A Written Statement At The Pre-Trial Stage Of The Proceedings But Are Unavailable To Testify At Trial?, Christopher L. Cassaniti

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Comparative Practice Of The International Tribunals. Under Which Conditions May Subpoenas Be Issued Against Witnesses And Potential Witnesses Who Refuse To Cooperate... Subpoena Has Been Issued., Anna Toniolo

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

"There Is A World Elsewhere": Preliminary Studies On Alternatives To Interest-Based Bargaining, F. Peter Phillips

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

We live in an Age of Reason, which our predecessors were pleased to call an Age of Enlightenment. The laws of physics and molecular chemistry, not the appearance of angels to shepherds, define our social expectations. In economics and in politics, we accept the guidance of a collective rationale, an Invisible Hand that, if it doesn't predict, nevertheless records the aggregate of decisions made by millions of social actors, each expressing not the general welfare but their individual self-interest.

Arbitrating Cultural Property Disputes, Elizabeth Varner

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Years drag by, vicious allegations fly across the world stage, parties die frustrated. While cultural property disputes are frequently arbitrated internationally, arbitration is not often used in domestic cultural property disputes. One of the paradoxes of cultural property disputes is the need to resolve the issue while not harming the parties' reputation or devaluing the cultural property. While scholars have shown much interest in arbitrating cultural property disputes in the United States, maximizing the potential of arbitration in cultural property disputes has largely been ignored.

Rejecting the acceptability of litigating cultural property disputes in the battlefield of the courtroom, this …

Policing International Prosecutors, Jenia I. Turner

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

A recurring question in international criminal procedure is how to ensure that prosecutors are held accountable for their errors and misconduct. When International Criminal Court (ICC) judges encountered the first serious error by the prosecution in Prosecutor v. Lubanga, they opted for an absolutist approach to remedies: the judges stayed the proceedings and ordered the release of the defendant. Although termination of the case was avoided through the intervention of the Appeals Chamber, the standoff between the judges and the prosecution highlighted the dilemmas that the ICC faces in these circumstances. To protect the integrity of its proceedings, the court …

Aedpa Mea Culpa, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

In this essay, the author contends that the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 [AEDPA] has frustrated both the enforcement of federal rights and legitimate state interests. He lays most of the blame on the Supreme Court's methodology for construing AEDPA's provisions. The Court insists that poorly conceived and drafted provisions must be taken literally, whatever the consequences, and that every provision must be read to change habeas corpus law in some way. This approach has produced unfair, wasteful, and even bizarre results that might have been avoided if the Court had assessed AEDPA more realistically.

Where Liberty Lies: Civil Society And Individual Rights After 9/11, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Had someone told you, on September 11, 2001, that the United States would not be able to do whatever it wanted in response to the terrorist attacks of that day, you might well have questioned their sanity. The United States was the most powerful country in the world, and had the world’s sympathy in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Who would stop it? Al Qaeda had few friends beyond the Taliban. As a historical matter, Congress and the courts had virtually always deferred to the executive in such times of crisis. And the American polity was unlikely to object …

Retrying The Acquitted In England Part Iii: Prosecution Appeals Against Judges' Rulings Of "No Case To Answer", David S. Rudstein

San Diego International Law Journal

The Order in Council permitting the prosecution appeal of "Mo" Courtney's acquittal and allowing him to be retried for the same offense of which he had previously been acquitted stems from the Criminal Justice Act 2003. That Act, which applies in England and Wales, grants the government the right to appeal certain rulings by the trial judge in criminal prosecutions on an indictment, including a ruling that there is no case to answer, i.e., a directed verdict of acquittal, and if the appeal is successful, allows the reviewing court to order that the acquitted defendant?s trial be resumed or that …

Should Criminal Juries Give Reasons For Their Verdicts?: The Spanish Experience And The Implications Of The European Court Of Human Rights Decision In Taxquet V. Belgium, Stephen C. Thaman

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article uses the European Court of Human Rights judgment of Taxquet v. Belgium, decided by the Grand Chamber in 2010, which held that in some cases the trial jury's failure to give reasons for its verdict of guilt could constitute a violation of the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, as a springboard for discussing whether or not criminal trial juries in Europe and the United States should be more accountable for their verdicts. The article explains the special jury verdicts traditionally used in Europe and the new Spanish requirement …

Violence Against Women In The United States And The State’S Obligation To Protect: Civil Society Briefing Papers On Community, Military And Custody Submitted To The United Nations Special Rapporteur On Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjoo, In Advance Of Her Mission To The United States Of America, Brenda V. Smith, Ashley Prather, Jaime M. Yarussi

Research Reports & White Papers

The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences visited the United States of America from 24 January to 7 February 2011. In the present report, she broadly examines the situation of violence against women in the country, including such issues as violence in custodial settings, domestic violence, violence against women in the military and violence against women who face multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination, particularly native American, immigrant and African-American women.

The Special Rapporteur highlights the positive legislative and policy initiatives undertaken by the Government to reduce the prevalence of violence against women, including the enactment and …

Attribution Of Criminal Liability A Critical Comparison Of The Us Doctrine Of Conspiracy And The Icty Doctrine Of Joint Criminal Enterprise From An American Perspective, Mark A. Summers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Global Issues In Criminal Procedure, Linda Carter, Christopher L. Blakesley, Peter J. Henning

McGeorge School of Law Teaching Materials

This book provides an overview of constitutional issues that arise when searches, seizures, and interrogations occur outside the United States. Global Issues examines prosecutions in U.S. courts that involve evidence obtained abroad and the reach of the Fourth Amendment when the searches and seizures involve U.S. citizens abroad compared with non-U.S. citizens. Cases such as Verdugo-Urquidez and Alvarez-Machain are included, along with sections on electronic surveillance and the reach of the Fifth Amendment and Due Process Clause abroad, plus materials on torture and extraordinary renditions. There is also a short discussion of indefinite detention in places like Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, …

Atrocity Crimes Litigation Year-In- Review (2010): A Gender Perspective, Valerie Oosterveld

Law Publications

No abstract provided.

"So Vast An Area Of Legal Irresponsibility"? The Superior Orders Defense And Good Faith Reliance On Advice Of Counsel, Mark W.S. Hobel

National Security Law Program

This Note argues that the modern superior orders defense represents the most relevant and just paradigm for assessing the potential criminal liability of U.S. interrogators who claim that they were authorized and counseled by government lawyers prior to using techniques that likely constituted torture. However, recent U.S. law, most importantly sections of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, constitutes an extension of the superior orders defense as it would apply to interrogators, and may not only fully immunize government officials and agents involved in interrogations, but also disrupt emerging international legal norms surrounding the superior orders defense.

Part I of …

Reconsidering Trials In Absentia At The Special Tribunal For Lebanon: An Application Of The Tribunal's Early Jurisprudence, Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Since Nuremburg, no individual has been prosecuted in an international or internationalized court entirely in his or her absence. That may soon change. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is empowered to try defendants in absentia, has now confirmed its first indictment. While its trial in absentia procedures were met with concern and criticism from some quarters when they were first announced, reconsideration is warranted in light of subsequent judicial developments. The judges of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon have now established in their preliminary decisions an interpretive approach to the Tribunal’s Statute that is adamantly purposive. This purposive approach …