Africa and the International Criminal Court

Although three African countries have recently announced their withdrawals from the International Criminal Court (ICC), a mass exodus does not appear imminent. Perceptions of the Court's bias towards African member-states are exaggerated, and it has begun to challenge major powers. Exceptions to the ICC's prosecutorial obligations allowing member-states greater flexibility to accommodate conflict resolution efforts among other situations could make African member-states less hostile to the Court.     

Discovering the New Face of Sovereignty: Complementarity and the International Criminal Court

This article examines the socially constructed nature of sovereignty in order to ascertain a more empirically based understanding of the role that this concept plays in the current postinternational order. In particular, it analyzes the practice of sovereignty in the construction of the newly forming International Criminal Court (ICC). In an attempt to understand the relationship between sovereignty and the ICC, the article addresses the following questions. Does the ICC undermine the principles of state sovereignty? What are the implications of this institution on sovereignty? Finally, can we consider the authority structure of the ICC a new form of sovereignty?     

Arab States and the Role of Islam in the International Criminal Court

This article assesses the various disagreements between Arab and western states that surfaced at the 1998 Rome Conference and Preparatory Commission. It also discusses the relationship between state repression and cultural adaptation by examining the undeveloped domestic criminal systems of Arab states and the ambiguous role played by shariah (Islamic law) in the constitutions of many of them. It argues two main points: that more mutual accommodation will be needed to resolve these and future conflicts between Islamic and international law; and that such conflicts between the ICC and Arab states expose the need for further cultural adaptation to the ICC Statute. It is out of this process of cultural adaptation that the relationship between Islam and serious international crimes will evolve.     

Trial Justice. The International Criminal Court and the Lord's Resistance Army, Tim Allen

With his book ‘Trial Justice’ Tim Allen enters oneof the hottest realms of recent debate in the field of transitionaljustice. His book is the first extensive study on the controversialinvolvement of the International Criminal Court in the conflict,one of Africa's longest conflicts, pertaining to the Lord'sResistance Army in northern Uganda. The stark contrast Allen depicts between two realities,     

Empty promises: Indonesia's non-ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Southeast Asia is one of the most underrepresented regions in the International Criminal Court (ICC). I address the question of non-ratification of the Rome Statute with a case study on Indonesia. While the Yudhoyono Administration has repeatedly promised to join the ICC, ratification has not materialized. I argue that Indonesia's tradition of emphasizing the protection of state sovereignty and economic gains in its foreign policy decisions best explains why it remains outside the ICC's jurisdiction. I test this claim by exploring Indonesia's human rights record, potential legal restrictions for the ratification of the Rome Statute, and the influence of domestic political players and external pressures.     

Interests, Institutions, and the Reliability of International Commitments

One feature associated with democratic governance is frequent leadership turnover. While the ease of replacing leaders improves accountability, it may impede the ability of democracies to make credible long-term international commitments. Using newly collected data that identify cases in which leaders who derive their support from different domestic interests come to power, we evaluate the effects of changes in domestic political leadership on one important aspect of foreign policy—decisions to maintain military alliances. An analysis covering bilateral alliances between 1919 and 2001 reveals that changes in societal supporting coalitions in nondemocratic states are associated with decisions to abrogate alliances prior to their scheduled end dates, but changes in societal supporting coalitions in democracies have no effect on the probability of premature alliance termination. We conclude that international cooperation is sensitive to changes in core supporting coalitions, but that this effect is moderated by democratic political institutions.     

Intelligence Contracting: On the Motivations,Interests, and Capabilities of Core Personnel Contractors in the US Intelligence Community

In the debate on intelligence contracting, intelligence officers are grouped into two personnel categories characterized by opposing sets of motivations and interests. Government employees are assumed to be motivated by a higher goal related to national security, while intelligence contractors are said to be motivated primarily by pecuniary interests and loyal first and foremost to their shareholders. Contemporary research on human motivation, however, suggests that the two personnel categories are not all that different in that both appear to be intrinsically motivated and loyal primarily to the mission at hand, namely national security. Moreover, comparative research on public organizations and private corporations suggests that there are more similarities between the two than there are differences. This must lead us to re-examine the recent criticism fielded against the practice of intelligence contracting.     

Testifying in an International War Crimes Tribunal: The Experience of Witnesses in the Special Court for Sierra Leone

The research described in this article investigates the extentto which witnesses who testified in the Special Court for SierraLeone (SCSL) report the experience as positive or negative.It also seeks to identify the factors that contribute to theseevaluations. It reports the results of structured interviewsconducted with 171 witnesses who testified in the SCSL. Thefinding that emerges most strongly is that the experience oftestifying was positive for the majority of witnesses. The courtroomenvironment was experienced as supportive, and witnesses ratedthe experiences of both examination-in-chief and cross-examinationas being more positive than negative, with examination-in-chiefbeing the more positive of the two. The findings suggest thata positive testimony experience can be predicted when a witnessdoes not feel worried at the prospect of testifying, feels respectedby court staff and, to a lesser extent, has a positive experienceof cross-examination.     

US Military and Economic Intervention in an International Context of Low-intensity Conflict

Recent major shifts in US military thinking, creating a new low-intensity conflict (LIC) doctrine, have resulted already in significant changes in organization, mission definition, force structure and budgetary allocation. These changes have come about because American leadership recognizes that the process of deindustrialization has produced a vulnerable, highly integrated and interdependent global economic system. This system of economic rationalization is susceptible to anti-western disruptions because of the instability produced by rapid social change, a consequence of the competition from the newly industrialized nations. LIC capability is viewed as a necessary means for dealing with disruptions.     

国际金融危机下劳资关系利益均衡路径分析

自2008年下半年以来，国际金融危机对我国经济发展的不利影响开始逐步显现，从目前来看，这场国际金融危机还在蔓延和深化，国际金融市场仍处于动荡之中，全球实体经济受到的影响日益显现，世界经济增长明显减速。受其影响，我国经济运行也面临很多困难，未来一个时期，经济社会发展的总体环境将可能更加严峻。面对当前严峻复杂的国内外经济形势，如何处理当前的劳资关系问题，保持劳资关系的利益平衡，的确给工会带来了很大的挑战。     

国际金融危机条件下工会维护破产企业职工权益的路径选择——大连开发区总工会处理日资企业“旭染织”破产案的启示

2008年，由美国“次贷危机”所导致的国际金融危机席卷全球，我国的实体经济也受到严重冲击，由此而衍生的企业欠薪问题、职工的安置问题、职工再就业问题直接影响广大职工的切身利益，并对工会维权工作提出严峻挑战。     

The Gender of Transitional Justice: Law, Sexual Violence and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Recent efforts to develop and implement progressive models oftransitional justice have been significantly influenced by majordevelopments in the law concerning sexual violence in armedconflict. In particular, the International Criminal Tribunalfor the former Yugoslavia has pioneered accountability for sexualviolence against women in armed conflict. This article takesthe ICTY as a case study of how gender can structure the accountabilitymechanisms of transitional justice. The article analyses howlegal norms and practices instantiate and reiterate, ratherthan transform, existing hierarchical gender relations. It considersthe existing models of sexual violence as a criminal harm underinternational law, and then examines gendered patterns of legalpractice in ICTY prosecutions. To address this engendering oftransitional justice, the article produces a new model of theharm of sexual violence in conflict, suggests the developmentof a new international offence of sexual violence and generatesdifferent strategies for international prosecutions of sexualviolence.     

Guilty Pleas in International Criminal Law: Constructing a Restorative Justice Approach, Nancy Amoury Combs

The field of transitional justice is entering a new phase bornof several decades of experience and a maturation of the practicaland theoretical engagement with the complex set of problemsinvolved in facing past atrocities. Guilty Pleas in InternationalCriminal Law: Constructing a Restorative Justice Approach focusesattention on the issue of guilty pleas in international criminallaw as an area of legal practice that merits additional attention,     

Rape and Sexual Violence as Torture and Genocide in the Decisions of International Tribunals: Transjudicial Networks and the Development of International Criminal Law

International criminal tribunals established by the UN Security Council in the 1990s have been widely acclaimed as active participants in the modern system of dynamic criminal justice. One of their best known achievements is the prosecution of rape and sexual assaults. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) set an example for other tribunals to follow. By interpreting a variety of international laws, the community of international legal professionals has been able to shift the prevailing understanding of rape and sexual violence away from that of an “unfortunate byproducts of war.” Not only has the epistemic community of legal professionals been able to end impunity for these crimes, but case-law of international tribunals has become a basis for subsequent trials at quasi-international tribunals. Decisions of the tribunals have been instrumental in drafting the Statute of the International Criminal Court and can be regarded as an example of the formation of new international norms by means of judicial decisions.