What happens to people who are accused of atrocity crimes at the bar of public opinion, are publicly indicted, prosecuted, tried, acquitted of criminal charges and then released? Does the mud stick? Or can the dirt also turn into gold, after legal exoneration and possible compensation? This article seeks to trigger a conversation on the international justice community’s stance on condemnation, compensation and convalescence. Through several versatile histories and stories, it gauges how exonerated persons have been navigating life after acquittal. To what extent have they managed to reverse, or recover from, their previous scandalizations, and if so: how? In thinking about this question, we problematize international justice community protagonists and prosecution services’ modus operandi (and effects) of scandalizing first and prosecuting alleged atrocitaires later. We observe that under the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s current circumstances (operating like a cage in search of birds) more suspects have been scandalized than convicted, but that often the scandal lingers. We conclude that for most acquitted persons requesting post-trial compensation is a dead end, and that doing so for some might further increase reputational damage. While several acquitted people ultimately remained defamed, some exonerated persons fully recovered from the human rights scandal by redefining compensation, and by turning the table and scandalizing the ICC.
{"title":"A Cage Went in Search of a Bird","authors":"T. Bouwknegt, Bart Nauta","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqad009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqad009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 What happens to people who are accused of atrocity crimes at the bar of public opinion, are publicly indicted, prosecuted, tried, acquitted of criminal charges and then released? Does the mud stick? Or can the dirt also turn into gold, after legal exoneration and possible compensation? This article seeks to trigger a conversation on the international justice community’s stance on condemnation, compensation and convalescence. Through several versatile histories and stories, it gauges how exonerated persons have been navigating life after acquittal. To what extent have they managed to reverse, or recover from, their previous scandalizations, and if so: how? In thinking about this question, we problematize international justice community protagonists and prosecution services’ modus operandi (and effects) of scandalizing first and prosecuting alleged atrocitaires later. We observe that under the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s current circumstances (operating like a cage in search of birds) more suspects have been scandalized than convicted, but that often the scandal lingers. We conclude that for most acquitted persons requesting post-trial compensation is a dead end, and that doing so for some might further increase reputational damage. While several acquitted people ultimately remained defamed, some exonerated persons fully recovered from the human rights scandal by redefining compensation, and by turning the table and scandalizing the ICC.","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42923748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
At the International Criminal Court (ICC), victims can participate in proceedings. However, in order to gain access to the Court, victims must first apply to be recognized. The scope of victims’ rights and who theoretically qualifies as a victim in international criminal law has been discussed extensively, but the procedure for applying the definitions in practice and granting access to these rights is under-researched. This article aims to address this knowledge gap by mapping the decisions on the procedure for victim application review throughout the history of the ICC. Through a context analysis of decisions on the procedure for reviewing victim applications, the article identifies the evolution of the victim application review procedure at the ICC and argues that the Court has deviated significantly from the legal framework. In recognition of the fact that the procedure stipulated in the legal framework has proven inoperable, this article argues that a workable approach to reviewing victim applications has emerged from the practice of the Chambers of the Court.
{"title":"The Evolution of the Procedure for Reviewing Victim Applications at the International Criminal Court","authors":"Karen Lønne Ring","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqac059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqac059","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 At the International Criminal Court (ICC), victims can participate in proceedings. However, in order to gain access to the Court, victims must first apply to be recognized. The scope of victims’ rights and who theoretically qualifies as a victim in international criminal law has been discussed extensively, but the procedure for applying the definitions in practice and granting access to these rights is under-researched. This article aims to address this knowledge gap by mapping the decisions on the procedure for victim application review throughout the history of the ICC. Through a context analysis of decisions on the procedure for reviewing victim applications, the article identifies the evolution of the victim application review procedure at the ICC and argues that the Court has deviated significantly from the legal framework. In recognition of the fact that the procedure stipulated in the legal framework has proven inoperable, this article argues that a workable approach to reviewing victim applications has emerged from the practice of the Chambers of the Court.","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48480140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Foreword","authors":"Anan Alsheikh Haidar","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqad008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqad008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41645446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Proceeding from the assumption that international criminal justice is a cosmopolitan project, the article advances a reconceptualized understanding of cosmopolitanism as a theoretical basis for collective action in ensuring accountability for international crimes. The article examines the building blocks of cosmopolitanism, and how the concept’s emphasis on equality and unity of the human family can guarantee its fundamental values of human dignity and shared humanity. Based on the understanding that international crimes assault humanity’s fundamental and cosmopolitan value of human dignity, and that accountability for such crimes is a cosmopolitan objective, the article advances the argument that while accountability for international crimes is primarily the obligation of individual sovereign states, this responsibility is ultimately residually one of humanity as a whole, exercisable through humanity’s collective action such as through regional intergovernmental organizations where an individual state is unable or unwilling by itself to do so.
{"title":"Obligations to ‘Strangers’","authors":"Owiso Owiso","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqad004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqad004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Proceeding from the assumption that international criminal justice is a cosmopolitan project, the article advances a reconceptualized understanding of cosmopolitanism as a theoretical basis for collective action in ensuring accountability for international crimes. The article examines the building blocks of cosmopolitanism, and how the concept’s emphasis on equality and unity of the human family can guarantee its fundamental values of human dignity and shared humanity. Based on the understanding that international crimes assault humanity’s fundamental and cosmopolitan value of human dignity, and that accountability for such crimes is a cosmopolitan objective, the article advances the argument that while accountability for international crimes is primarily the obligation of individual sovereign states, this responsibility is ultimately residually one of humanity as a whole, exercisable through humanity’s collective action such as through regional intergovernmental organizations where an individual state is unable or unwilling by itself to do so.","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42596843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Foreword","authors":"Barbora Holá, Róisín Mulgrew, Maja Munivrana","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqad007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqad007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43668594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
On 29 June 2022, the Italian Parliament approved Law no. 79, which converted — with amendments — Article 43 of Decree-Law no. 36/2022 of 30 April 2022 into law, possibly marking the final stage of the long saga of the German–Italian dispute over Germany’s civil liability for Nazi crimes against the Italian population during World War II. The Decree-Law was originally issued, as a matter of urgency, with a specific purpose: the Italian government intended to prevent the Federal Republic of Germany from suffering the loss of a significant real estate asset, located in Rome, due to the execution proceedings before the Court of Rome. However, the purpose of this legislative measure was not solely to avert this scenario in the short term. On the contrary, with the Decree-Law, now converted into law, the singular result has been reached that the Italian state will pay all compensation owed to victims of Nazi massacres on behalf of Germany. The article contextualizes the new provision, analysing the saga of Germany’s civil liability in parallel with the criminal prosecutions of Nazi criminals in Italy, both after the war and in more recent years. It provides critical evaluations and proposes hypotheses on possible future scenarios.
{"title":"German Crimes and Italian Money?","authors":"P. Caroli","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqad005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqad005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 On 29 June 2022, the Italian Parliament approved Law no. 79, which converted — with amendments — Article 43 of Decree-Law no. 36/2022 of 30 April 2022 into law, possibly marking the final stage of the long saga of the German–Italian dispute over Germany’s civil liability for Nazi crimes against the Italian population during World War II. The Decree-Law was originally issued, as a matter of urgency, with a specific purpose: the Italian government intended to prevent the Federal Republic of Germany from suffering the loss of a significant real estate asset, located in Rome, due to the execution proceedings before the Court of Rome. However, the purpose of this legislative measure was not solely to avert this scenario in the short term. On the contrary, with the Decree-Law, now converted into law, the singular result has been reached that the Italian state will pay all compensation owed to victims of Nazi massacres on behalf of Germany. The article contextualizes the new provision, analysing the saga of Germany’s civil liability in parallel with the criminal prosecutions of Nazi criminals in Italy, both after the war and in more recent years. It provides critical evaluations and proposes hypotheses on possible future scenarios.","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47258224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
It has generally been understood that international criminal law recognizes ex post facto aiding and abetting as a mode of liability but not the standalone offence commonly known, in many states, as accessory after the fact. However, as this article reveals, the authentic Spanish text of Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (‘ICC Statute’) includes the word ‘encubridor’ which — as a comparative analysis of the Criminal Codes of Spanish-speaking countries confirms — is the Spanish language legal equivalent of a person that is an accessory after the fact. Yet, nothing in the authentic English text of Article 25(3)(c) — the version that most of the international criminal law scholarship and the International Criminal Court (‘ICC’) have focused on — alludes to this. To resolve this substantive discrepancy, Article 25(3)(c) is considered across all authentic languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) and in light of Articles 31–33 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in a manner consistent with the rights of the accused. This article concludes that the mentioned discrepancy is unique to Article 25(3)(c) in the authentic Spanish language, most likely the result of an error, and that the concept of ‘accessory after the fact’ should not be applied at the ICC. That Article 25(3), a provision that has featured in so many ICC decisions and judgments and spawned so much academic writing, has contained such a glaring and seemingly undetected error for over 24 years ought to compel commentators, academics, and practitioners to look beyond the working languages of the ICC — English and French — when analysing, interpreting, and applying the ICC Statute.
{"title":"Accessory After the Fact at the International Criminal Court?","authors":"M. J. Ventura","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqad003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqad003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 It has generally been understood that international criminal law recognizes ex post facto aiding and abetting as a mode of liability but not the standalone offence commonly known, in many states, as accessory after the fact. However, as this article reveals, the authentic Spanish text of Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (‘ICC Statute’) includes the word ‘encubridor’ which — as a comparative analysis of the Criminal Codes of Spanish-speaking countries confirms — is the Spanish language legal equivalent of a person that is an accessory after the fact. Yet, nothing in the authentic English text of Article 25(3)(c) — the version that most of the international criminal law scholarship and the International Criminal Court (‘ICC’) have focused on — alludes to this. To resolve this substantive discrepancy, Article 25(3)(c) is considered across all authentic languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) and in light of Articles 31–33 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in a manner consistent with the rights of the accused. This article concludes that the mentioned discrepancy is unique to Article 25(3)(c) in the authentic Spanish language, most likely the result of an error, and that the concept of ‘accessory after the fact’ should not be applied at the ICC. That Article 25(3), a provision that has featured in so many ICC decisions and judgments and spawned so much academic writing, has contained such a glaring and seemingly undetected error for over 24 years ought to compel commentators, academics, and practitioners to look beyond the working languages of the ICC — English and French — when analysing, interpreting, and applying the ICC Statute.","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49529681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The maritime domain, largely comprised of international ‘commons’ covering more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, presents some unique challenges in identifying, much less reconciling, applicable International Environmental Law (IEL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) principles. This article posits that the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, particularly its prescriptive and enforcement jurisdictional apportionments to nations relating to the prevention and control of pollution, establishes the peacetime IEL normative framework at sea. After exploring this normative framework, this article furthers the symposium’s overall theme by examining the interplay between this IEL framework and the relatively sparse and sporadic IHL regime at sea. As will be seen, this interplay is largely a question of the extent to which, if at all, these jurisdictional apportionments survive during periods of armed conflict. As such, it aligns more closely with the ‘application process’ for impacting the regulation of armed conflict, in which IEL applies alongside IHL to activities related to armed conflict, than with the ‘interpretation process’, whereby IHL is interpreted in light of IEL.
{"title":"The Intersection of International Environmental Law and International Humanitarian Law at Sea","authors":"A. Norris","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqad001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqad001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The maritime domain, largely comprised of international ‘commons’ covering more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, presents some unique challenges in identifying, much less reconciling, applicable International Environmental Law (IEL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) principles. This article posits that the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, particularly its prescriptive and enforcement jurisdictional apportionments to nations relating to the prevention and control of pollution, establishes the peacetime IEL normative framework at sea. After exploring this normative framework, this article furthers the symposium’s overall theme by examining the interplay between this IEL framework and the relatively sparse and sporadic IHL regime at sea. As will be seen, this interplay is largely a question of the extent to which, if at all, these jurisdictional apportionments survive during periods of armed conflict. As such, it aligns more closely with the ‘application process’ for impacting the regulation of armed conflict, in which IEL applies alongside IHL to activities related to armed conflict, than with the ‘interpretation process’, whereby IHL is interpreted in light of IEL.","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41785834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although hazardous activities and substances create significant environmental risks and damage during warfare, international humanitarian law contains very few provisions that specifically address this question. To reinforce the protection of the environment, these provisions should be interpreted in light of — and complemented by — international environmental instruments adopted during the last decades. Indeed, these instruments envisage important rules, mechanisms, and institutions which aim at preventing and redressing environmental threats and damage resulting from the production and use of hazardous substances and the dumping of wastes during peacetime. This article seeks precisely to examine how these rules, mechanisms and institutions could apply in the context of war-related incidents, not only during an armed conflict, but also before and after its occurrence. The article will show that sophisticated safety measures that help in preventing such incidents, which often create irreversible consequences, must be designed, tested, and implemented well before hostilities are taking place. Furthermore, environmental remediation of contaminated areas should also be considered after the end of the conflict.
{"title":"The Regulation of Hazardous Substances and Activities During Warfare","authors":"Jérôme de Hemptinne","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqac057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqac057","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Although hazardous activities and substances create significant environmental risks and damage during warfare, international humanitarian law contains very few provisions that specifically address this question. To reinforce the protection of the environment, these provisions should be interpreted in light of — and complemented by — international environmental instruments adopted during the last decades. Indeed, these instruments envisage important rules, mechanisms, and institutions which aim at preventing and redressing environmental threats and damage resulting from the production and use of hazardous substances and the dumping of wastes during peacetime. This article seeks precisely to examine how these rules, mechanisms and institutions could apply in the context of war-related incidents, not only during an armed conflict, but also before and after its occurrence. The article will show that sophisticated safety measures that help in preventing such incidents, which often create irreversible consequences, must be designed, tested, and implemented well before hostilities are taking place. Furthermore, environmental remediation of contaminated areas should also be considered after the end of the conflict.","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48235727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Armed conflicts have an impact on freshwater resources and often damage water installations, which could be targeted or incidentally damaged, affecting water quality and quantity and limiting access for the civilian population. Thus, in situations of armed conflict, protecting freshwater resources and related installations becomes essential. International humanitarian law (IHL) and international environmental law (IEL) provide for relevant rules that limit the impact of armed conflicts on freshwater and water infrastructure. IHL protects civilian objects, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, works and installations containing dangerous forces and the natural environment. It also prohibits employing poison or poisonous weapons and environmental modification techniques. IEL regulates the sustainable and environmentally sound use, development and management of water resources. Progress in the realm of the human right to water and the rise of environmental consciousness further necessitate an eco-friendly approach that recognizes comprehensive protection. Therefore, this article examines the interplay between IEL and IHL, explaining how IEL can contribute to the interpretation of IHL rules and exploring areas where IEL could complement IHL rules relevant to the protection of freshwater resources and related installations during warfare.
{"title":"The Legal Protection of Freshwater Resources and Related Installations during Warfare","authors":"Mara Tignino, Tadesse Kebebew","doi":"10.1093/jicj/mqac061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqac061","url":null,"abstract":"Armed conflicts have an impact on freshwater resources and often damage water installations, which could be targeted or incidentally damaged, affecting water quality and quantity and limiting access for the civilian population. Thus, in situations of armed conflict, protecting freshwater resources and related installations becomes essential. International humanitarian law (IHL) and international environmental law (IEL) provide for relevant rules that limit the impact of armed conflicts on freshwater and water infrastructure. IHL protects civilian objects, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, works and installations containing dangerous forces and the natural environment. It also prohibits employing poison or poisonous weapons and environmental modification techniques. IEL regulates the sustainable and environmentally sound use, development and management of water resources. Progress in the realm of the human right to water and the rise of environmental consciousness further necessitate an eco-friendly approach that recognizes comprehensive protection. Therefore, this article examines the interplay between IEL and IHL, explaining how IEL can contribute to the interpretation of IHL rules and exploring areas where IEL could complement IHL rules relevant to the protection of freshwater resources and related installations during warfare.","PeriodicalId":46732,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Criminal Justice","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2023-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138536029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}