The International Committee of the Red Cross and International Human Rights Law

Throughout a considerable part of its history, the InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has customarily refrainedfrom invoking international human rights law, for reason ofthis law's alleged politicisation. However, the changing characterof armed conflicts and other situations of violence where theICRC is currently operating have prompted it to set a frameworkfor making some limited use of selected and applicable humanrights, for the purpose of reinforcing the protection and assistanceit provides. This article examines how the ICRC may use humanrights in this way during armed conflicts, through the prismof international humanitarian law, as well as the conditionsfor their invocation in accordance with relevant ICRC doctrines.     

国际刑法证据规则的一个例外——关于红十字国际委员会作证豁免权问题

引言 2002年7月1日成立的国际刑事法院,在其通过制定的法院《证据和程序规则》里,给予红十字国际委员会(International Committee of the Red Cross)(以下简称“国际红会“)在作证方面享有豁免权.这是一条非常特殊的规定……     

Genocide, Complicity in Genocide and International v. Domestic Jurisdiction: Reflections on the van Anraat Case

When adjudicating international crimes, domestic courts arefaced with a choice between the application of internationallaw or national law. In the recent van Anraat judgment, a DutchDistrict Court explicitly opted for the former alternative.This approach led to the accused's acquittal of complicity ingenocide. In the Court's opinion, there was no proof beyonda reasonable doubt that van Anraat had actual knowledge of SaddamHussein's special intent to destroy part of the Kurdish population.According to the Court, such proof is required under internationallaw. This article argues that the Court's preference for internationallaw was not prescribed, either by international law or by domesticlaw, although in principle such preference may prove advisable,whenever international rules are clear and exhaustive. Aftertracing the intricate legal discussions on mens rea requirementsfor genocide and complicity in genocide, the author concludesthat the issue has not yet been completely elucidated in internationalcase law and legal literature. In situations of ambiguity whereinternational case law offers insufficient guidance, domesticcourts would better resort to their own criminal law. As Dutchcriminal law extends the mens rea of the accomplice beyond ‘knowledge’so as to cover dolus eventualis as well, application of domesticlaw might have affected the outcome of the case.     

Restorative Justice and Collective Responsibility: Lessons for and from the Rwandan Genocide

Genocide struck Rwanda in 1994. Since then, national and international trials have endeavored to promote reconciliation, deterrence, peace, justice, and human rights. This article posits a disconnect between these trials and the attainment of their avowed goals. This disconnect emerges in part from the influential agendas of international lawyers who equate selective criminal prosecution with the "rule of law" and espouse criminal prosecution as the preferred and uniform response to mass atrocity. Creating a presumption in favor of criminal prosecution has dampened the need to explore whether such trials actually are suitable for the particular afflicted society. A socio-legal analysis suggests that Rwanda is precisely a place where constructed notions of what "rule of law" ought to be are supplanting the need to implement reconstructive policies that may be best for Rwanda. In particular, the populist nature of the Rwandan genocide, coupled with the vast level of victimization, suggest that a shame-based restorative approach may be more successful in promoting reconciliation, deterrence, and peace than the guilt-based retributive approach currently in vogue. This article argues that, when the law blames occurrences of genocidal evil largely on the existence of some evil people, it obscures the fact that so many people, to varying degrees of complicity, are required for this evil to result in so many deaths.     

Writing the Rwandan Genocide: The Justice and Politics of Witnessing after the Event

This paper tries to read together three texts that refer to the Rwandan genocide and to draw attention to certain paradoxes that emerge from the way in which the texts might be said to talk to and past each other. The overall intention is to throw light on the complications in witnessing such an event, and to themes of justice and politics that arise.

The role of the Justice Select Committee

Emotion is ... ubiquitous, although often operating less obviously and visibly, underground. (Layder, 2004)

Them first three years ... I wasn't coping very well with my emotions.

(Prisoner)     

论鉴定结论的质证

本文对鉴定结论质证的特殊内容、鉴定结论质证的主体以及鉴定结论质证中应注意的问题进行了分析，以探讨如何完善鉴定结论的质证。     

司法鉴定——科技对真理和正义的诠释

司法鉴定是人类科技发展的一个重要方面,是法律和科技的完美结合。本文从司法鉴定的构成和司法鉴定的新发展与运用等方面对司法鉴定这一科技分支进行了简略描述。     

司法鉴定的程序性公正若干问题研究

没有完善的诉讼立法,没有程序公正意识,加强司法鉴定管理,在规范司法鉴定活动中只能治形式之“表”,而不能提高司法鉴定质量,确保司法公正之“实”,难以维护当事人诉讼权利,难以满足诉讼活动的需要,难以促进司法公正。为了建立起科学、有效的司法鉴定机制,应当着力于程序立法的完善和强化程序公正观念。     

程序正义理念与司法鉴定制度重构

司法鉴定活动应符合一系列体现程序正义的基本诉讼理念,即当事人平等、程序公开及证据裁判等。在这些基本诉讼理念的指导下重构司法鉴定制度,主要内容是:建立中立的司法鉴定机构、采取措施确保鉴定人的专业性和独立性、明确鉴定结论的非终结性等。     

International Criminal Trials and the Circumstances of Justice

Transitional justice is broadly understood to refer to formal efforts to deal with past wrongs in the midst of a transition from an extended period of conflict or repression to democracy. In this paper, I consider the role of international criminal trials in transitional justice. I argue that such trials may contribute to transitional justice, but such contributions are conditional on two main factors. The first factor is time. The second factor is what other transitional justice responses are adopted domestically.     

Damaska and the Faces of International Criminal Justice

Mirjan Damaka 's scholarly publications provide important insightsfor the analysis of systems of criminal justice at the internationallevel. This is particularly true for his major book: The Facesof Justice and State Authority – A Comparative Approachto the Legal Process. The book develops ideal types, or models,of the structure and the function of government. As far as thestructure of government, the ideal types of hierarchical andcoordinate officialdom are contrasted with one another. Withregard to the function of government in society, two other mutuallyexclusive ideal types are developed: the ideal type of the purelyreactive state and that of the purely activist state. In thepurely reactive state all state activities are essentially aform of dispute resolution between individual citizens. Consequently,all proceedings take the shape of a contest between two parties.In the reactive state, on the other hand, all law is an expressionof state policies. This entails that all proceedings are essentiallyan official inquiry enabling the state to implement its policies.The four ideal types call for several observations, one of thembeing that, at the international level, there is no authoritythat can be compared to a state. Setting up international criminal courts requires choices withregard to the structure and function of authority. Internationalhuman rights instruments provide no guidance as to the natureof the choices to be made. In particular, they do not indicatewhether the legal process should be structured as a contestbetween two parties or as an official inquiry. The same is truefor empirical evidence. An analysis of the structures of authority in internationalcriminal courts reveal that they represent hybrids of the hierarchicaland the coordinate ideal types of officialdom. The fact thatthese courts are unitary courts has a profound effect on evidentiaryarrangements. The most important issue raised by the exposition of ideal typesof The Faces of Justice concerns the relationship between thegoals of international criminal justice and the appropriatelegal process to serve their realization. Goals of a conflict-solvingnature are best served by a legal process structured as a contestbetween two parties and goals related to the implementationof policies by a legal process structured as an official inquiry.It is therefore essential to determine what goals are beingpursed by international criminal courts. One may distinguishhere between goals that international systems of justice mayor may not have in common with national systems of criminaljustice. The pursuit of the traditional goals of criminal justicecommon to international and national systems of justice doesnot provide compelling reasons to prefer either a contest modelor an inquest model of the legal process. This is different,however, for the idiosyncratic goals of international criminaljustice that set apart international systems of criminal justicefrom national systems. The pursuit of these goals makes it desirablethat historical facts are established as accurately as is possiblein the given circumstances. They are, therefore, best servedby a legal process that takes the shape of an official inquiry.In the hybrid type of procedure adopted by the ICTY there isinsufficient clarity about the procedural status of the peculiargoals of international criminal justice as well as about theuse of procedural means to pursue them. This entails that itis not really possible to determine whether this hybrid representsa success. Hybrid types of procedure cannot truly exist withoutadopting a view with regard to the impartiality of judges thatis inspired by standards enshrined in international human rightsinstrument rather than those that are characteristic for thelegal process shaped as a contest between two parties.     

深化司法鉴定改革 实现几个转变 确保司法公正

当前我国司法体制改革正处在研究酝酿阶段.今后一段时间如何进一步推进司法鉴定改革,确保司法公正与效率目标的实现,是摆在各级司法行政机关面前的重要课题.本文作者提出了深化司法鉴定改革的若干思索在司法鉴定制度建设上,实现从局部安排到全局设计的转变;在司法鉴定治理方式上,实现从统一管理到分类指导的转变;在司法鉴定机构建设上,实现从数量培育到素质提升的转变;在司法鉴定标准建设上,实现从附带建设到独立发展的转变.