Reflections on International Criminal Justice

Judge Cassese presents arguments in favour of the use of international courts in order to punish war crimes. He argues that the application of justice through a court is better in certain circumstances than amnesties. He examines the merits of international courts rather than national courts, but acknowledges that at present there are several major stumbling blocks to an effective international criminal justice system.     

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.     

Internet for International Criminal Justice Organizations

Increasing pressure to reduce operational cost and the simultaneously arising demand to make more and more information available to a wider audience are the main motivation for using Internet as basis for publishing material. The project described in this contribution is an ongoing co-operation between the United Nations Centre for International Crime Prevention and the University of Vienna which is aimed at providing an Internet platform for the distribution of United Nations information related to crime prevention and criminal justice. It is shown how the technology is applied by an international organisation as basis for disseminating information and how the available information can be used by researches for analysis. The implemented system, UNCJIN (United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network), today has been received very well in the community and serves as a valuable basis for research requiring international data, such as country reports and statistics.     

国际刑事司法协助与引渡问题探析

刑事司法协助是国家关系的重要内容,是一国司法权的有效域外延伸,具有重要的外交价值和司法价值。开展刑事司法协助问题的研究,特别是建立我国现代引渡制度,对于打击跨国犯罪、引渡跨国犯罪、追究逃窜到国外罪犯的刑事责任、监控追缴赃款赃物等方面具有重要意义。目前,在我国现存的各种法律规范以及与外国签订的司法协助协定之中,缺乏切实可行的措施。为此,制定切实可行的引渡制度仍是任重而道远的法制任务。     

反恐与国际刑事司法准则的底限

恐怖主义是人类生存面临的难题,它通过暴力和残忍的手段,对世界和平、经济发展、社会生活乃至人类文明造成严重威胁.恐怖主义是当代人类之间展开的另一种形式的自相残杀.但是,即使其在法律上是严重违法的,在道德上是难以立足的,然而,毕竟有其存在的深层根源.因此,应当明晰恐怖主义与反恐的性质,正确认识反恐与国际刑事司法准则的价值与效力之间的冲突,并从世界其他一些国家的反恐立法及司法实践中寻找经验和借鉴,从而正确协调恐怖主义与反恐以及反恐与国际刑事司法准则的关系,为解决这一死结提供一条可行路线.     

The International Criminal Court and Africa: Exemplary Justice

This is a theoretical and empirical investigation into the causal link (if any) between international criminal trials and preventing violence through exemplary prosecutions. Specifically how do representative trials of persons accused of having the greatest responsibility for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole, supposedly bind recurrent violence? The argument pursued is that by using an accused as an example, a court engages in an indirect and uncertain substitution of personal rights for social harmony and order. These prosecutions combine a peculiar rhetoric, logic and aesthetic, all which substitute the responsibilities for a society in general to a particular individual in order to redeem that society by transferring its communal responsibility onto the individual punished as a form of atonement or expiation. International and domestic trials, as well as truth and reconciliation commissions, are part of a suite of options addressing communal mass violence that can work in tandem. However, because those convicted do not have a monopoly on criminality, nor do those merely reconciled have a monopoly on virtue, exemplification through punishment only targets a few on behalf of the many. Indeed such a redemptively sacrificial economy distinguishes legal justice from mere vengeance.     

The Dutch Engagement with the Project of International Criminal Justice

Netherlands International Law Review -     

The Ethics of Plea Bargaining in International Criminal Trials

The paper argues that contemporary theoretical and philosophical concerns relating to the practice of plea bargaining in international trials for crimes such as genocide should be seen in the broader context of the perceived legitimacy of international trial justice. The paper questions the capacity of international trial structures to deliver a form of truth which contributes to justice suggesting that the legitimacy of the truth available is conditioned by ideology and normative practice. The paper suggests that the key to transforming international trial justice lies in promoting the link between trial ideology and the perceived moral legitimacy of its outcomes through the exercise of judicial discretionary power. Ralph Henham is Professor of Criminal Justice, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University.     

Toward Peace in the World of Business through International Criminal Justice

In response to the concerns of the world community over the interlockings between the abuse of economic and political power and its potential negative effect on national socio-economic development efforts, the United Nations has undertaken several major strategic programs. The recent Sixth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders focused on this topic, with a global strategy beginning to emerge. Yet that strategy could be on a collision course with the policies of the new American administration. The author reasons that support for an international control strategy is in the best interests of the United States and other Western nations, that it need not collide with a laissez-faire domestic policy, and that it provides an alternative to violent acts of aggression and other non-negotiated mechanisms for achieving world economic justice.     

联合国刑事司法准则与我国刑事法律改革若干问题

1998年10月5日,我国签署了《公民权利和政治权利公约》。该公约最为明确、集中、具体地规定了联合国刑班司法准则．我们有必要将我国的刑事立法与联合国刑事司法准则相对照．寻找差距．并提出改革、完善的具体措施。从而推动我国刑事法律向前发展。试就涉及刑法、刑事诉讼法方面的问题作了一些探讨。