This book addresses potential avenues of criminal liability for public health crisis management in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, under national and international criminal law, especially for causing death and bodily harm. The national case studies are geographically representative and follow a common research grid. Each national case study is prefaced by an overview of the detection and subsequent spread of the pandemic in the country concerned. The relevant legal and constitutional frameworks that governed the government and corporate conduct in the face of the pandemic are also discussed, followed by the consideration of forms of criminal liability. Government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic differed vastly in terms of both the choice of strategies adopted (herd immunity, test-and-trace, lockdown, etc) and the quality and speed of government implementation of those strategies and associated interventions. Both factors impacted the number of infections and casualties. It is therefore appropriate to consider forms of criminal liability for failure of individual members of government, including specific public authorities, to act to the best of their abilities, as timely as possible, and in accordance with expert advice.

Since the first edition of this book was published in 2010, United Nations peace operations have evolved significantly. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan, UN peacekeepers are now engaged in building peace by fighting non-State armed actors, and must consider issues concerning the application of law and policy governing the use of armed force when protecting civilians. In addition, the UN and its peacekeepers are increasingly being held to higher standards of accountability to ensure that their engagement with local forces and populations meets normative requirements found in international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This extensively revised edition of Documents on the Law of UN Peace Operations addresses the key normative principles, rules, and standards that have been a part of this evolution. The book provides essential documents, accompanied with commentary, which identify and explain the legal framework or applicable legal norms involved in the planning, management and conduct of UN peace operations. Topics covered include obligations under international humanitarian law, human rights law, international criminal law, and privileges and immunities. Special attention is also paid to matters such as accountability, the rule of law, and the protection of civilians.

Providing a comprehensive explanation of blockchain, cryptocurrency and the international regulation and challenges that apply, this book introduces the reader to the core topics, including: global regulation of blockchain and cryptoassets; the Internet of Things; the Right to be Forgotten and the right to erasure; environmental, social and governance metrics; smart contracts; initial coin offerings; data protection regulation; Decentralised Autonomous Organisations ('DAOs') and the Metaverse. Written by leading UK experts in cyber law, the Second Edition includes: - fungible and non-fungible cryptoassets ('NFTs') - remedy and tracing strategies - financial hygiene requirements that flow from anti-money laundering - counter-terrorist financing regulations. Explaining the fundamentals of blockchain and cryptocurrency in an accessible and understandable way, and sparking new thinking about how old problems can be solved in new ways, this book is essential reading for anyone wishing to have a wider understanding of this complex and evolving area of law.

Founded by the late Otto Triffterer this leading commentary contains a detailed article-by-article analysis of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by eminent legal practitioners and scholars in the field of international criminal law. The commentary explains the content of the various articles in a broader sense, including their drafting history, their impact on International Criminal Law, and their relation to other sources of the ICC such as the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, and the Regulations of the Court and the Prosecution. The fourth edition has been thoroughly revised, updated and complemented with further resources. It contains up-to-date case law (including a Table of Cases), literature and legislative developments at the ICC in a clearly structured manner, and will continue to provide a useful guide for both practitioners and academics in various capacities.

This volume is devoted to the dark side of human mobility, that is migrant smuggling, and, linked with it, human trafficking. Both subjects will be mainly treated from an Italian perspective; however, due to their having a generally transnational character, the analysis will necessarily require that international and supranational actions/measures also be taken into account. Moreover, the legal perspective will be supplemented by the phenomenological/criminological one, through which the authors try to provide the work with a realistic dimension aimed at grasping the practical aspects of both migrant smuggling and human trafficking emerging from the different ways in which such crimes are de facto committed.

In addition to being one of the fastest growing organized crimes in the world, human trafficking is a ruthless and thriving business. This industry, with billions of dollars in net worth, pushes millions of adults and children into commercial sexual servitude, forced labour, and bonded labour. In this book, Joshua Nathan Aston studies the severity of human trafficking, its transnational networks, and the impact of international criminal and humanitarian laws in dealing with the crime. Analysing global statistics in detail, he provides a perspective on the effectiveness of the UN protocols and examines the role of the International Criminal Court, with a focus on Article 7 of the Rome Statute. Aston proposes various measures for effectively countering human trafficking, with the most significant recommendation of setting up a Convention on Prevention of Crimes against Humanity to combat this form of modern-day slavery.

Between September 2006 and December 2008, Simon Bikindi stood trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, accused of inciting genocide with his songs. In the early 1990s, Bikindi had been one of Rwanda's most well-known and popular figures - the country's minister for culture and its most famous and respected singer. But by the end of 1994, his songs had quite literally soundtracked a genocide. Acoustic Jurisprudence is the first detailed study of the trial that followed. It is also the first work of contemporary legal scholarship to address the many relations between law and sound, which are of much broader importance but which this trial very conspicuously raises. One half of the book addresses the Tribunal's 'sonic imagination'. How did the Tribunal conceive of Bikindi's songs for the purposes of judgment? How did it understand the role of radio and other media in their transmission? And with what consequences for Bikindi? The other half of the book is addressed to how such concerns played out in court. Bikindi's was a 'musical trial', as one judge pithily observed. Audio and audio-visual recordings of his songs were played regularly throughout. Witnesses, including Bikindi himself, frequently sang, both of their own accord and at the request of the Tribunal. Indeed, Bikindi even sang his final statement. All the while, judges, barristers, and witnesses alike spoke into microphones and listened through headphones. As a result, the Bikindi case offers an ideal opportunity to explore what this book calls the 'judicial soundscape'. Through the lens of the Bikindi trial, the book's most important innovation is to open up the field of sound to jurisprudential inquiry. Ultimately, it is an argument for a specifically acoustic jurisprudence.

How to address the human rights violations of previous regimes and past periods of conflict is one of the most pressing questions facing governments and policy makers today. New democracies and states in the fragile post-conflict peace-settlement phase are confronted by the need to make crucial decisions about whether to hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable for their actions and, if so, how to best achieve that end. This is the first book to examine the ways in which states and societies in the Asia-Pacific region have navigated these difficult waters. Drawing together several of the world's leading experts on transitional justice with Asia-Pacific regional and country specialists it provides an overview of the processes and practices of transitional justice in the region as well as detailed analysis of the cases of Cambodia; Sri Lanka; Aceh, Indonesia; South Korea; the Solomon Islands; and East Timor.

This collection of essays on transnational crime and policing covers a broad range of themes: the relationship between global policing and the transnational-state-system; the impact of advanced technologies on policing practice; the changing morphology of occupational policing subculture; and the transnational practices of police agencies. The essays include case studies and are based on empirical fieldwork that began in the early 1990s and continued for over a decade well into the post 9-11 period. This collection also provides valuable accounts of the 'secret social world' of transnational police, demonstrates that the developmental trajectory of transnational practices was already established prior to the 'age of Homeland Security' and addresses the controversial issue of how transnational policing in all of its complex manifestations might be made politically accountable in the interests of the general global commonwealth.

The four Geneva Conventions, adopted in 1949, remain the fundamental basis of contemporary international humanitarian law. They protect the wounded and sick on the battlefield, those wounded, sick or shipwrecked at sea, prisoners of war, and civilians in time of war. However, since they were adopted warfare has changed considerably. In this groundbreaking commentary over sixty international law experts investigate the application of the Geneva Conventions and explain how they should be interpreted today. It places the Conventions in the light of the developing obligations imposed by international law on states, armed groups, and individuals, most notably through international human rights law and international criminal law. The context in which the Conventions are to be applied and interpreted has changed considerably since they were first written. The borderline between international and non-international armed conflicts is not as clear-cut as was once thought, and is complicated further by the use of armed force mandated by the United Nations and the complex mixed and transnational nature of certain non-international armed conflicts. The influence of other developing branches of international law, such as human rights law and refugee law has been considerable. The development of international criminal law has breathed new life into multiple provisions of the Geneva Conventions. This commentary adopts a thematic approach to provide detailed analysis of each key issue dealt with by the Conventions, taking into account both judicial decisions and state practice. Cross-cutting chapters on issues such as transnational conflicts and the geographical scope of the Conventions also give readers a full understanding of the meaning of the Geneva Conventions in their contemporary context. Prepared under the auspices of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, this commentary on four of the most important treaties in international law is unmissable for anyone working in or studying situations of armed conflicts.

Although there are many texts on the law of evidence, surprisingly few are devoted specifically to the comparative and international aspects of the subject. The traditional view that the law of evidence belongs within the common law tradition has obscured the reality that a genuinely cosmopolitan law of evidence is being developed in criminal cases across the common law and civil law traditions. By considering the extent to which a coherent body of common evidentiary standards is being developed in both domestic and international jurisprudence, John Jackson and Sarah Summers chart this development with particular reference to the jurisprudence on the right to a fair trial that has emerged from the European Court of Human Rights and to the attempts in the new international criminal tribunals to fashion agreed approaches towards the regulation of evidence.

This Work deals with chances and boundaries of the protection of Human Rights through International Law and International Criminal Law. It contains contributions by leading legal scholars and experts from all over the world and provides positive as well as skeptical attitudes.

This book begins with the belief that, if a moral principle cannot be identified in the language of the law, if law is not underpinned by a moral understanding of the norm, if the moral accusation is not attached to the violations of certain indispensable norms of the law, then we are violating the peremptory character of the universality of the moral law. The book vicariously objects to any dispute for the advantage of the impunity of those who have cruelly contravened the corpus juris of international peremptory criminal law. What justifies the law in recognizing certain principles as peremptory derives from the highest genetic merit for the international human community as a whole. Here, the term `peremptory', for classical morality, is seen to encompass love for the spirit of truth, for the strength of equality of arms and for the reaffirmation of the value of the essence of man where its infringements violate the indispensable universal rights of nature. This is regardless of whether its perpetrators are Western or non-Western.

How is EU criminal legislative competence regulated after the Lisbon Treaty? Is it based on a legal constitution, reviewed by judges, or should the system be described as a political constitution, largely in the hands of the legislature? This study asks what powers have been conferred on the Union in the field of substantive criminal law and how the exercise of its powers may be reviewed after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The questions raise a wide range of issues relevant to EU criminal law, but also to EU constitutional, administrative and institutional law. Through the book’s exploration of them, the author brings fresh perspectives and insights that will be welcomed by EU scholars.