War Crimes Prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-2002): An Analysis through the Jurisprudence of the Human Rights Chamber

The authors examine the efforts to bring persons suspected ofwar crimes committed during the 1992–1995 war in Bosniaand Herzegovina (BiH) to justice before the national judiciary.The analysis is based on the case law of the Human Rights Chamberfor BiH, which from 1996–2003 was the highest court competentto adjudicate violations of human rights in post-war BiH. TheChamber heard complaints linked to war-time atrocities fromtwo main perspectives: (i) that of persons put on trial forwar crimes and (ii) the perspective of the relatives of war-crimesvictims complaining about the failure to investigate and prosecute.The Chamber cases establish that (a) the few prosecutions whichtook place were nearly exclusively directed against suspectsbelonging to the war-time adversary, (b) the authorities failedto comply with the Rules of the Road (a procedure put in placeto enable the International Criminal Tribunal for the formerYugoslavia (ICTY) to supervise Bosnian war-crimes prosecutions)and (c) suspects were often severely ill-treated to extort confessionsand denied a fair trial. The rule, however, was the lack ofany investigatory or prosecutorial action, with the exceptionof the so-called ‘ethnically mixed’ Cantons of theFederation of BiH, where proceedings were sometimes initiatedbut failed to yield an appreciable outcome. The authors discussthree reasons for the poor record: (i) ethnic bias among theauthorities, (ii) disempowerment and passivity of the victimsand (iii) failure to enact legislation that would give effectto and clarify the BiH side of the obligation to exercise jurisdictionconcurrently with the ICTY. They finally set forth some suggestionson lessons to be learned for future attempts to bring justiceto a war-torn society by the concurrent exercise of criminaljurisdiction by an international court and the judiciary ofthe country in transition.     

Organizational power and distributional conflict within OECD nations

Abstract. This article claims that a predator-prey model of cyclical growth is a useful concept for studying the dynamic relationship between wage and salary shares of GDP and employment. The rate of growth of employment is considered as an indicator of union bargaining strength; the change of the wage share is treated as a reflection of an ongoing distributional conflict between profits and wages. The paper discusses some of the analytic properties of the formal model. It continues with an attempt to fit the model to West German data for the period from 1960 to 1985. Given the formal rigidity of the model, this strategy is only partially successful. As a consequence, a more complex model is introduced which also relies heavily on the idea of a predator-prey cycle. As a fully-fledged political-economic model of the OECD type of systems, it allows us to study, among other issues, the implications of different union policies under the constraint of a serious unemployment problem.     

Fatal crossbow injury in an adolescent

The authors present the case of a 14-year-old boy who died while handling a crossbow, which was a gift from a friend's mother. The bolt passed through the right nostril, penetrated the sinus sphenoidalis, the brain stem, the left occipital lobe and the occipital calvaria. Immediately after the accident, the victim was taken to a maximum care hospital. In spite of neurosurgical treatment and intensive care the victim died 4 days later. The case presented demonstrates that crossbows are not suitable as toys for underage persons, as they are deadly weapons which can cause serious penetrating injuries. In Germany, no license is required to buy and/or possess crossbows. In the authors' opinion, legal restrictions on the sale of crossbows and a special training of the users would be reasonable measures to reduce such accidents.     

Data breach notification law in the EU and Australia – Where to now?

Mandatory data breach notification laws have been a significant legislative reform in response to unauthorized disclosures of personal information by public and private sector organizations. These laws originated in the state-based legislatures of the United States during the last decade and have subsequently garnered worldwide legislative interest. We contend that there are conceptual and practical concerns regarding mandatory data breach notification laws which limit the scope of their applicability, particularly in relation to existing information privacy law regimes. We outline these concerns here, in the light of recent European Union and Australian legal developments in this area.