ICC Pre-Trial Chamber Allows Victims to Participate in the Investigation Phase of Proceedings

The decision rendered by the International Criminal Court (ICC)Pre-Trial Chamber I on 17 January 2006 allows victims to beinvolved in ICC proceedings at an early stage of the investigation.The Prosecutor, who has filed an appeal against this decision,has consistently argued that the right of victims to participatein the proceedings does not cover the investigation phase. Itis argued that the impact of this decision goes far beyond theissue of victims’ participation in the investigations;it has general implications for the balance of power betweenthe judiciary and the prosecution in proceedings before theICC.     

Newspaper juries

This article reports on a field experiment on the effect of media information on people’s attitudes towards the justice system. For the duration of a year a Dutch local newspaper took small groups of readers, called ‘newspaper jurors’, to court sessions of criminal cases and subsequently reported on their experiences and perceptions. Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined whether an attitude change in the general reader population of this particular local newspaper occurred as a result of the jury’s newspaper reports. Findings show that, after the treatment interval of 1 year, no attitude change in the general reader population could be identified that was absent in the control group.     

Analysis of STR loci in Cartagena, a Caribbean city of Colombia

Allele frequencies, together with some parameters of forensic interest were estimated for nine STRs included in the AmpF/STR Profiler kit (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D13S317, FGA, TH01, TPOX and vWA) in a sample of 215 unrelated individuals from Cartagena (Colombia). For all loci, no significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed. Comparative analysis results between our data and those from other Colombian and African population samples revealed significant differences, except with two Colombian Caribbean Coast sub-regions.     

Legislation and Maintenance of Public Order and Civil Life by Occupying Powers

Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Regulations is a key provisionof the law of belligerent occupation. This essay examines howit has been understood by states and scholars, how it was developedby the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and whether and howit was respected by the US and the UK during their recent occupationof Iraq. Under Article 43, an occupying power must restore andmaintain public order and civil life, including public welfare,in an occupied territory. Local legislation and institutionsbased upon such legislation must be respected by an occupyingpower and by any local authorities acting under the global controlof the occupying power. This general prohibition to change thelocal legislation also applies to post-conflict reconstructionefforts, including constitutional reforms, and changes of economicand social policies. The author examines the exceptions to theprohibition and assesses whether the widespread legislativeactivities by the occupying powers in Iraq fall under theseexceptions. He then analyses the question of whether the lawof military occupation ceased to apply in Iraq on 30 June 2004.It is also suggested that Article 43 applies to some peace operationsand provides a useful framework even for those peace operationsto which it does not formally apply.