On July 8, 1996 the International Court of Justice handed down two Advisory Opinions on the legality of nuclear weapons. This book offers a comprehensive study of those opinions. More than thirty internationally respected experts contribute their analyses of the status of nuclear weapons in international law across all its sectors: use of force, humanitarian law, environment and human rights. The contributions also assess the implications of the opinions for international organizations and the international judicial function. Contributors include lawyers, academics, diplomats and advisors to international bodies.

Decisions of the International Court of Justice are almost as replete with references to precedent as are decisions of a common law court. Even though previous decisions are not binding, the Court relies upon them as authoritative expressions of its views on decided points of law. In his book, the distinguished international lawyer Judge Shahabuddeen examines various aspects of this phenomenon. He shows the extent to which the Court is guided by its previous decisions, and discusses the way in which parties to cases are themselves guided by decisions of the Court in framing and presenting their cases. He also traces the possibilities for future development of the system. Judge Shahabuddeen's analysis of the Court is a major contribution to this important subject.

This book deals with the possible investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes allegedly committed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In light of the Rome Statute and the Practice of the Office of the Prosecutor of the Court, among others, it examines the route, possible outcomes, and challenges that may arise were the Palestine situation to be brought before the ICC. The subject matter is approached using the route the Prosecutor of the Court would generally employ to deal with situations. The publication offers a step-by-step procedure by which to conduct the preliminary examination and investigation of the situation in Palestine and deals with matters of jurisdiction, followed by a discussion of the fundamental concepts of complementarity and gravity to determine the admissibility before the ICC. Alleged crimes particularly unique to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as the construction of settlements, forced displacement, house demolitions, the expropriation of land, the crime of apartheid and the blockade of Gaza, are dealt with in light of the Rome Statute and international law. On the basis of the established theories of transitional justice, the possible impacts of an ICC investigation and prosecution on the conflict are analysed and a number of insights are shared with regard to the impacts of the ICC on combatting impunity, fostering Palestine's statehood, peace negotiations and the stability of the region. Due to the politicisation of the conflict and the various interests at stake, the impact of the ICC's involvement on the credibility of the ICC itself is also reviewed. Recognizing the numerous impacts of the conflict on the existence of the two nations and the multitude of causes for its perpetuity, it does not limit itself to the ICC, but also provides other conflict resolution alternatives that could enable reconciliation and sustainable peace in the region. This book provides an array of opinions and a crucial input for researchers and practitioners alike, while it is also useful to those investigating and possibly involved in prosecutions regarding Palestine or other similar situations before the ICC. Seada Hussein Adem obtained a PhD from Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, an LLM from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and an LLB from Haramaya University, Ethiopia.

This book highlights the importance of optional choice of court agreements, and the need for future research and legal development in this area. The law relating to choice of court agreements has developed significantly in recent years, reflecting their increased use in practice. However, most recent legal developments concern exclusive choice of court agreements. In comparison, optional choice of court agreements, also called permissive forum selection clauses and non-exclusive jurisdiction clauses, have attracted little attention from lawmakers or commentators. This collection is comprised of 19 National Reports, providing a critical analysis of the legal treatment of optional choice of court agreements, including asymmetric choice of court agreements, under national laws as well as under multilateral instruments. It also includes a General Report offering an overview of this area of the law and a synthesis of the findings of the national reporters. The contributions to this collection show that the legal treatment of optional choice of courts differs between legal systems. In some countries, the law on the effect of optional choice of court agreements is at an early stage in its development, whereas in others the law is relatively advanced. Irrespective of this, the national reporters identify unresolved issues with the effect of optional choice of court agreements, where the law is unclear or the cases are conflicting, demonstrating that this topic warrants greater attention. This book is of interest to judges, legislators, lawyers, academics and students who are concerned with private international law and international civil procedure.

International Commercial Arbitration in Sweden offers comprehensive coverage and analysis of the principles, rules, and legal aspects of international commercial arbitration in Sweden. Sweden has long been a leading centre for international arbitrations, particularly for disputes involving parties from the Russian Federation, other Eastern European countries, and China. Written by a renowned author with more than 25 years experience, practising both as counsel and arbitrator, this book utilizes personal and professional experience to provide the non-Swedish reader with an in-depth knowledge of Swedish arbitration laws as they are applied internationally. Special attention is paid to issues relating to the conflict of laws and further aspects of private and public international law, such as issues around the enforcement of foreign awards in Sweden. This new edition features additional appendices providing a detailed overview of the key cases and legislative amendments since the publication of the first edition.

The Balkan Wars, the Rwanda genocide, and the crimes against humanity in Cambodia and Sierra Leone spurred the creation of international criminal tribunals to bring the perpetrators of unimaginable atrocities to justice. When Richard Goldstone, David Crane, Robert Petit, and Luis Moreno-Ocampo received the call - each set out on a unique quest to build an international criminal tribunal and launch its first prosecutions. Never before have the founding International Prosecutors told the behind-the-scenes stories of their historic journey. With no blueprint and little precedent, each was a path-breaker. This book contains the first-hand accounts of the challenges they faced, the obstacles they overcame, and the successes they achieved in obtaining justice for millions of victims.

Principles of International Criminal Law is one of the most influential textbooks in the field of international criminal justice. This fourth edition builds on the highly-successful work of the previous editions, setting out the general principles governing international crimes as well as the fundamentals of both substantive and procedural international criminal law. It provides a detailed understanding of the sources and evolution of international criminal law, demonstrating how it has developed, and how its application has changed. The book assesses in detail the four key international crimes as defined by the statute of the International Criminal Court: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The new edition revises and updates the work with developments in international criminal justice since 2014. It includes substantial new material on critical perspectives on international criminal justice, the fragmentation of international criminal law, new war crimes of prohibited means of warfare, and the prosecution of crimes committed in Syria and Northern Iraq.The book retains its highly-acclaimed systematic approach and consistent methodology, making it essential reading for both students and scholars of international criminal law, as well as practitioners and judges working in the field.

The IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (the 'Rules') are used in the majority of international arbitration cases, regardless of the administering institution or the legal background of the parties. The updated Rules were adopted in 2010 and provide mechanisms for the presentation of documents, witnesses of fact, expert witnesses, inspections, and the conduct of evidentiary hearings. They are widely accepted by the arbitration community and have become an international applicable standard. That said, the Rules are at times unclear and open to interpretation, leading to potential disputes as to how they should be applied in practice. This book provides a comprehensive, article-by-article commentary on the Rules, pulling together in one volume an in-depth analysis of the relevant case law, reports of the IBA working groups, academic authorities, and the authors' own practical experience. The authors offer practical guidance on issues that frequently arise in practice and advise practitioners on how the Rules can be applied to advance or defend particular propositions. They also analyze how the Rules work in tandem with other applicable provisions, such as the UNCITRAL Model Law, and include practical templates and checklists that practitioners can use to support their daily practice.

During the 1980s, thousands of Chadian citizens were detained, tortured, and raped by then-President Hissene Habre's security forces. Decades later, Habre was finally prosecuted for his role in these atrocities not in his own country or in The Hague, but across the African continent, at the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal. By some accounts, Habre's trial and conviction by a specially built court in Dakar is the most significant achievement of global criminal justice in the past decade. Simply creating a court and commencing a trial against a deposed head of state was an extraordinary success. With its 2016 judgment, affirmed on appeal in 2017, the hybrid tribunal in Senegal exceeded expectations, working to deadlines and within its budget, with no murdered witnesses or self-dealing officials. This book details and contextualizes the Habre trial. It presents the trial and its impact using a novel structure of first-person accounts from 26 direct actors (Part I), accompanied by academic analysis from leading experts on international criminal justice (Part II). Combined, these views present both local and international perspectives through distinct but inter-locking parts: empirical source material from understudied actors both within and outside the court is then contextualized with expert analysis that reflects on the construction and work of: the Extraordinary African Chamber (EAC) as well as wider themes of international criminal law. Together with an introduction laying out the work and significance of the EAC and its trial of Hissene Habre, the book is a comprehensive consideration of a history-making trial.

Criminal law, according to George Fletcher, has become localized law in the sense that each country and, within the USA, each state has adopted its own set of criminal codes, conceptions of punishable behaviour, etc. In this book, Fletcher maintains that there is much greater unity among diverse systems of criminal justice than commonly realized, and that any adequate system of criminal law necessarily must address a set of universal, basic issues. He introduced and sets out the twelve concepts that shape and guide every system of criminal justice, knowledge of which is essential to understanding the structure of the law and its local and national variations.

For the first time, a monograph thoroughly analyses the controversial and sensitive topic of secretaries to arbitral tribunals. Tribunal secretaries support arbitrators at all stages of the arbitration and provide valuable assistance; yet, thus far, they have remained largely in the shadows. This book provides vital discussion on how tribunal secretaries should be appointed, what specific tasks they may be endowed with, and what the consequences of an impermissible use are. Comprehensive analysis of case law, arbitration legislation, institutional rules and guidelines, and supporting literature guides the reader towards a profound understanding of the benefits and pitfalls surrounding the tribunal secretary's position. Tribunal Secretaries in International Arbitration adopts a transnational approach to systematically answer questions often discussed but thus far unresolved. Structured in three parts, the book develops the conceptual foundations, discusses the practical implementation, and outlines limits of the permissible use of tribunal secretaries. The busy practitioner is furnished with easy-to-use templates and guidelines for practical and seamless implementation in international arbitrations. These include a seven-step formal appointment process, ready-to-use material for correspondence with the parties, and a Traffic Light Scale of Permissible Tribunal Secretary Tasks for the consultation of arbitrators, secretaries and parties alike. Shining a spotlight on the tribunal secretary, this monograph is an invaluable contribution to the further institutionalisation of a role of ever-increasing importance in the coming years. With useful analysis and practical guidelines, it is an essential tool for all practitioners and academics involved in international arbitration.

Transplanting International Courts: The Law and Politics of the Andean Tribunal of Justice provides a deep, systematic investigation of the most active and successful transplant of the European Court of Justice. The Andean Tribunal is effective by any plausible definition of the term, but only in the domain of intellectual property law. Alter and Helfer explain how the Andean Tribunal established its legal authority within and beyond this intellectual property island, and how Andean judges have navigated moments of both transnational political consensus and political contestation over the goals and objectives of regional economic integration. By letting member states set the pace and scope of Andean integration, by condemning unequivocal violations of Andean rules, and by allowing for the coexistence of national legislation and supranational authority, the Tribunal has retained its fidelity to Andean law while building relationships with nationally-based administrative agencies, lawyers, and judges. Yet the Tribunals circumspect and formalist approach means that, unlike in Europe, community law is not an engine of integration. The Tribunals strategy has also limited its influence within the Andean legal system. The authors also revisit their own path-breaking scholarship on the effectiveness of international adjudication. Alter and Helfer argue that the European Court of Justice benefitted in underappreciated ways from the support of transnational jurist advocacy movements that are absent or poorly organized in the Andes and elsewhere in the world. The Andean Tribunals longevity despite these and other challenges offers guidance for international courts in other developing country contexts. Moreover, given that the Andean Community has weathered member state withdrawals and threats of exit, major economic and political crises, and the retrenchment of core policies such as the common external tariff, the Andean experience offers timely and important lessons for European international courts.

The idea of due process of law is recognised as the cornerstone of domestic legal systems, and in this book Larry May makes a powerful case for its extension to international law. Focussing on the procedural rights deriving from Magna Carta, such as the rights of habeas corpus (not to be arbitrarily incarcerated) and nonrefoulement (not to be sent to a state where harm is likely), he examines the legal rights of detainees, whether at Guantanamo or in refugee camps. He offers a conceptual and normative account of due process within a general system of global justice, and argues that due process should be recognised as jus cogens, as universally binding in international law. His vivid and compelling study will be of interest to a wide range of readers in political philosophy, political theory, and the theory and practice of international law.

This scholarly legal work focuses on the dilemma of prosecuting gender-based crimes under the statutes of the international criminal tribunals with reference to the principle of fair labelling. In this book Hilmi M. Zawati explains how the abstractness and lack of accurate description of gender-based crimes in the statutory laws of the international criminal tribunals and courts infringe the principle of fair labelling, lead to inconsistent verdicts and punishments, and cause inadequate prosecution of these crimes. This inquiry deals with gender-based crimes as a case study, and with fair labelling as a legal principle and a theoretical framework. Critical and timely, this study contributes to existing scholarship in many different ways. It is the first legal analysis to focus on the dilemma of prosecuting and punishing wartime gender-based crimes in the statutory laws of the international criminal tribunals and the ICC in the context of fair labelling. Moreover, it emphasizes that applying fair labelling to wartime gender-based crimes would enable the tribunals and the ICC to deliver fair judgments, eliminate inconsistent prosecution, overcome shortcomings in addressing gender-based crimes within their jurisprudence, while breaking the cycle of impunity for these crimes. Consisting of two parts, this work begins by outlining the central focus and theoretical legal framework of the study. It concentrates on fair labelling as an imperative legal principle and a legal framework, examines its intellectual development, scope and justification, and illustrates its applicability to gender-based crimes. The second part addresses the dilemma of prosecuting gender-based crimes in the international criminal tribunals.

In 1998, the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court (ICC) emerged as a groundbreaking treaty both due to its codification of international criminal law and its recognition of the crimes committed against women in times of war and conflict. The ICC criminalized acts of rape, sexual slavery, and enforced pregnancy, amongst others, to provide the most advanced articulation ever of gender based violence under international law. However, thus far no scholarly book has analyzed whether or not the implementation of the ICC has been successful. The Politics of Gender Justice at the International Criminal Court fills this intellectual gap, specifically examining the gender justice design features of the Rome Statute (the foundation of the ICC), and assessing the effectiveness of the statute's implementation in the first decade of the court's operation. Louise Chappell argues that although the ICC has provided mixed outcomes for gender justice, there have also been a number of important breakthroughs, particularly in regards to support for female judges. Meticulous and comprehensive, this book refines the notion of gender justice principles and adds a valuable, but as yet unrecognized, gender dimension to the burgeoning historical institutionalist approach to international relations. Chappell links feminist international relations literature with feminist institutionalism literature for the first time, thereby strengthening and adding to both fields. Ultimately, Chappell's analysis is an essential step towards attaining a greater degree of gender equality in the context of international law. The definitive volume on gender and the ICC, The Politics of Gender Justice at the International Criminal Court is a valuable resource for students and scholars of international relations, international law, and human rights.

The persistent objector rule is said to provide states with an 'escape hatch' from the otherwise universal binding force of customary international law. It provides that if a state persistently objects to a newly emerging norm of customary international law during the formation of that norm, then the objecting state is exempt from the norm once it crystallises into law. The conceptual role of the rule may be interepreted as straightforward: to preserve the fundamentalist positivist notion that any norm of international law can only bind a state that has consented to be bound by it. In reality, however, numerous unanswered questions exist about the way that it works in practice. Through focused analysis of state practice, this monograph provides a detailed understanding of how the rule emerged and operates, how it should be conceptualised, and what its implications are for the binding nature of customary international law. It argues that the persistent objector rule ultimately has an important role to play in the mixture of consent and consensus that underpins international law.

This book addresses the European Court of Human Rights' fairness standards in criminal appeal, filling a gap in this less researched area of studies. Based on a fair trial immediacy requirement, the Court has found several violations of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights at the appellate level by at least eighteen States of the Council of Europe in a vast array of cases, particularly in contexts of first instance acquittals overturning and of sentences increasing on appeal. On the one hand, the book critically engages this case-law with the law revisions it has recently inspired in European countries, as well as with the critiques and difficulties that it continues to raise. On the other hand, it interweaves insight from criminal procedure theory with new discoveries in the field of cognitive sciences (neuroscience of memory, philosophy of knowledge, AI), shedding an interdisciplinary light on the (in)adequacy and limits of the Strasbourg Court's jurisprudence.

Opportunities to see expert cross-examinations are often infrequent in international arbitration and the occasions to sharpen these skills for many are rare. This book is both an invaluable teaching tool as well as a general guide to effective cross-examination in international arbitration. Based on extensive experience and insight from the authors and aided by practical examples, it provides a thoroughly illustrated analysis of how essential cross-examination techniques can best be adapted to the arbitral format. Concise and well organised, it leads the reader through the different cross-examination techniques in an accessible point by point structure, presenting readers with a clear and authoritative introduction on how best to conduct a cross-examination or a quick-reference for more experienced practitioners. An international arbitration hearing is very different from a trial in a court and any practitioner appearing as counsel, whether common or civil law lawyers, needs to know what will happen and how it will differ in order to adapt their conduct. Hober and Sussman explore the challenges practitioners face when conducting a cross-examination in such an environment and provide practical learning aids to help overcome them. Cross Examination In International Arbitration addresses the common issues that can occur in cross-examination in arbitrations such as adjusting the level of English to consider the competency of the panel's least competent member or how to cross-examine a witness with only the use of a written statement rather than by means of oral direct testimony. By highlighting the common challenges which might arise, the authors present a guide which will benefit those practicing or looking to practice in this field.

Challenging the classic narrative that sovereign states make the law that constrains them, this book argues that treaties and other sources of international law form only the starting point of legal authority. Interpretation can shift the meaning of texts and, in its own way, make law. In the practice of interpretation actors debate the meaning of the written and customary laws, and so contribute to the making of new law. In such cases it is the actor's semantic authority that is key - the capacity for their interpretation to be accepted and become established as new reference points for legal discourse. The book identifies the practice of interpretation as a significant space for international lawmaking, using the key examples of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Appellate Body of the WTO to show how international institutions are able to shape and develop their constituent instruments by adding layers of interpretation, and moving the terms of discourse. The book applies developments in linguistics to the practice of international legal interpretation, building on semantic pragmatism to overcome traditional explanations of lawmaking and to offer a fresh account of how the practice of interpretation makes international law. It discusses the normative implications that arise from viewing interpretation in this light, and the implications that the importance of semantic changes has for understanding the development of international law. The book tests the potential of international law and its doctrine to respond to semantic change, and ultimately ponders how semantic authority can be justified democratically in a normative pluriverse.

Since its establishment at the turn of the century, a central preoccupation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been to catalyse the pursuit of criminal accountability at the domestic level. Drawing on ten years of research, this book theorizes the ICC's principle of complementarity as a transnational site and adaptive strategy for realizing an array of ambitious governance goals. Through a grounded, inter-disciplinary approach, it illustrates how complementarity came to be framed as a 'catalyst for compliance' and its unexpected effects on the legal frameworks and institutions of three different ICC 'situation countries' in Africa: Uganda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Linking complementarity's law and practice to contemporary debates in international law and relations, the book unsettles international law's dominant progressive narrative. It urges a critical rethinking of the ICC's politics and a reorientation towards international criminal justice as a project of global legal pluralism.

This book provides a comprehensive and analytical overview of human rights law in Africa. It examines the institutions, norms, and processes for human rights realization provided for under the United Nations system, the African Union, and sub-regional economic communitites in Africa, and explores their relationship with the national legal systems of African states. Since the establishment of the African Union in 2001, there has been a proliferation of regional institutions that are relevant to human rights in Africa. These include the Pan African Parliament, the Peace and Security Council, the Economic, Social and Cultural Council and the African Peer Review Mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. This book discusses the links between these institutions. It further examines the case law stemming from Africa' most important human rights instrument, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, which entered into force on 21 October 1986. This new edition contains a new chapter on the African Children's Rights Committee as well as full coverage of new developments and instruments, such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Three cross-cutting themes are explored throughout the book: national implementation and enforcement of international human rights law; legal and other forms of integration; and the role of human rights in the eradication of poverty. The book also provides an introduction to the relevant human rights concepts.

The move to end impunity for human rights atrocities has seen the creation of international and hybrid tribunals and increased prosecutions in domestic courts. The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice is the first major reference work to provide a complete overview of this emerging field. Its nearly 1100 pages are divided into three sections. In the first part, 21 essays by leading thinkers offer a comprehensive survey of issues and debates surrounding international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and their enforcement. The second part is arranged alphabetically, containing 320 entries on doctrines, procedures, institutions and personalities. The final part contains over 400 case summaries on different trials from international and domestic courts dealing with war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, and terrorism. With analysis and commentary on every aspect of international criminal justice, this Companion is designed to be the first port of call for scholars and practitioners interested in current developments in international justice.

International law in national courts, and among politicians and citizens, does not always have the desired effect at the domestic level. This volume is a genuinely interdisciplinary analysis of international law and courts, examining a wide range of courts and judicial bodies, including human rights treaty bodies, and their impact and shortcomings. By employing social science methodology combined with classical case studies, leading lawyers and political scientists move the study of courts within international law to an entirely new level. The essays question the view that legal docmatics will be enough to understand the increasingly complex world we are living in and demonstrate the potential benefits of adopting a much broader outlook drawing on empirical legal research. This volume will have great appeal to anyone interested in the effects - rather than just the processes and structures - of international law and courts.

This volume presents 20 original essays by political scientists and other judicial scholars on a variety of topics relative to the broad area of judicial politics. One theme of these essays is to explore the ways in which law and politics intertwine in the United States. Secondly, the essays provide insights into how scholars go about studying various judicial politics subjects such as the role of judges, lawyers, and juries in our political system. The essays explore issues at the trial court level, at the intermediate appellate court level, and at the U.S. Supreme Court. The essays look at the role of judges, juries, lawyers, interest groups, and other actors in the American legal system. Some of the essays look at the issues of judicial selection, while others look at how what we learn about the courts in the U.S. can help us better understand courts in other countries. Taken together, the essays reveal the broad range of issues that students of judicial politics will want to understand in order to appreciate the role of courts in our society.

This book seeks to investigate the growing jurisdictional interaction between national and international courts ie: their parallel involvement in the same or related disputes in the light of competing theoretical, ideological and methodological discourses on the nature of the relationship and the means to regulate it. In particular, it aims to explore what, if any, rules of international law could, or perhaps should govern such interactions, and regulate forum selection or multiple proceedings involving national and international courts. In addition, the book explores the standards of review employed by international courts vis-a-vis the decisions of their domestic counterparts and vice versa. It posits that the regulation of such interactions ultimately depends on the selection of the overarching paradigm that governs the relations between national and international courts (hierarchical as opposed to non-hierarchical and disintegrative or integrative conceptual frameworks). Following academic discussion of the problems and solutions pertaining to the interaction between national and international courts, the book considers the potential applicability of several jurisdiction-regulating measures to jurisdictional interactions between national and international courts. These include rules on forum selection and rules designed to regulate multiple proceedings (e.g. lis alibi pendens and res judicata), utilization of comity- based measures and doctrines, such as discretionary stay or dismissal of proceedings and margin of appreciation judicial review, and examination of the prohibition against abuse of rights. This segment of the book strives to provide lawyers and academics with a 'tool kit' of measures which could be employed in cases involving jurisdictional interactions between national and international courts.