This monograph examines and analyses the phenomenon of non-binding instruments (also known as 'soft law') in the law of armed conflict, or international humanitarian law. In the past 30 years, there have been several non-binding instruments created, designed as either 'best practice' guidelines, or (re)statements of applicable law. These instruments are not treaties, but they nevertheless put themselves forward as authoritative statements of what the law is and, in some instances, what the law should be. Soft law instruments can be dynamic, prompt, and responsive measures to address pressing issues in armed conflicts. By drawing on the skill of a small group of experts, these instruments can be debated and drafted in a timelier manner than if these issues were to be left to the international community of 194 States to resolve. Furthermore, because these instruments do not have to be sent for debate to an international conference of States, it means that the provisions are not subject to the usual revisions, reservations, and dilutions that come with attempting to reach consensus. However, there are potential and actual problems with these instruments and the processes that bring them to fruition, and how they are received in practice by States and other stakeholders. This volume looks at the benefits and drawbacks for States and non-State actors with regards to soft law, whether they are effective additions to the law of armed conflict, analysing the development through the lens of theories of legitimacy and legality in international law.

International Criminal Law provides a comprehensive overview of an increasingly integral part of public international law. It complements the usual accounts of the substantive law of those international crimes tried to date before international criminal courts and of the institutional law of those courts with in-depth analyses of fundamental formal juridical concepts such as an 'international crime' and an 'international criminal court'; with detailed examinations of the many international crimes provided for by way of multilateral treaty and of the attendant obligations and rights of states parties; and with sustained attention to the implementation of international criminal law at the national level. Direct, concise, and precise, International Criminal Law should prove a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners of the discipline of international criminal law.

This comprehensive reference work serves as an important resource for anyone interested in the international prosecution of war crimes and how it has evolved. War Crimes and Trials analyzes the evolution of war crime trials through primary sources. Beginning with a general discussion of why regulations for war have evolved, it then illustrates the resulting changes in the nature and consequences of war as well as attitudes toward war as a part of international life. Moreover, it contextualizes contemporary rules that pertain to both international and non-international armed conflicts. The heart of the book focuses on 12 World War II cases central to the development of war law over the next 50 years, including the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials of major war criminals. It additionally dedicates discussion to the evolution of the law after World War II as set in motion by the United Nations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and amendments, the background and operation of the ad hoc international criminal courts, and the creation of the permanent International Criminal Court, illustrating problems and successes through 12 cases drawn from these four courts. Walks readers through the evolution of present standards of battlefield conduct Concisely summarizes the background of each war crime trial Shows through testimony how standards have been applied in war crime trials Leads readers to understand the difficulty of international prosecution for war crimes Provides resources for further study

The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law is a comprehensive, critical work, which analyses the state of research across the refugee law regime as a whole. Drawing together leading and emerging scholars, the Handbook provides both doctrinal and theoretical analyses of international refugee law and practice. It critiques existing law from a variety of normative positions, with several chapters identifying foundational flaws that open up space for radical rethinking. Many authors work directly in the field, and their contributions demonstrate how scholarship and practice can mutually inform each other. Contributions assess a wide range of international legal instruments relevant to refugee protection, including from international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international migration law, the law of the sea, and international and transnational criminal law. Geographically, contributors examine regional and domestic laws and practices from around the world, with 10 chapters focused on specific regions. This Handbook provides an account, as well as a critique, of the status quo, and in so doing it sets the agenda for future academic research in international refugee law.

Since the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998, international criminal law has rapidly grown in importance. This three-volume treatise on international criminal law presents a foundational, systematic, consistent, and comprehensive analysis of the field. Taking into account the scholarly literature, not only sources written in English but also in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, the book draws on the author's extensive academic and practical work in international criminal law. This third volume offers a comprehensive analysis of the procedures and implementation of international law by international criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court. Through analysis of the framework of international criminal procedure, the author considers each stage in the process of proceedings before the ICC, including the role of legal participants, the scope of jurisdiction, and the enforcement of sentences. The full three-volume treatise addresses the entirety of international criminal law, re-stating and re-examining the fundamental principles upon which it rests, the manner it is enacted, and the key issues that are shaping its future. It is essential reading for practitioners, scholars, and students of international criminal law alike.

The book systematically analyses the relationship and interaction between rules of engagement (ROE) and the legal framework regulating armed conflicts, both at the international and national levels. At the international level, the relationship between ROE and human rights law and international humanitarian law is explored. At the national level, the book relates ROE to (comparative) criminal law. A separate chapter analyses the complex relationship between self-defence law and rules of engagement. It is the first monograph to comprehensively examine these issues and to analyse how ROE interact with the various sources of the (international) law of military operations, both in terms of the law as a source for these rules and how the law is reflected and implemented through them. In doing so, and based on the author's own experience, the book provides examples of how complicated, often controversial issues of law can be resolved while keeping the rules understandable at all levels of military operations. Aimed at both scholars and practitioners, the book provides a bridge between the academic world and the operational world. It provides new insights for both of those audiences in terms of understanding how the law applies to - and through - the rules on the use of force for military operations.

Although sexual violence directed at both females and males is a reality in many on-going conflicts throughout the world today, accountability for the perpetrators of such violence remains the exception rather than the rule. While awareness of the problem is growing, more effective approaches are urgently needed for the investigation and prosecution of conflict-related sexual violence crimes. Upon its establishment in 1993, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) began the challenging task of prosecuting the perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence crimes, alongside the many other atrocities committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. This book documents the experiences, achievements, challenges, and fundamental insights of the OTP in prosecuting conflict-related sexual violence crimes at the ICTY over the past two decades. It draws on an extensive dossier of OTP documentation, court filings, trial exhibits, testimony, ICTY judgements, and other materials, as well as interviews with current and former OTP staff members. The authors provide a unique analytical perspective on the obstacles faced in prioritizing, investigating, and prosecuting conflict-related sexual violence crimes. While ICTY has made great stridesin developing international criminal law in this area, this volumeexposes the pressing need for determined and increasingly sophisticated strategies in order to overcome the ongoing obstacles in prosecuting conflict-related sexual violence crimes. The book presents concrete recommendations to inform future work being done at the national and international levels, including that of the International Criminal Court, international investigation commissions, and countries developing transitional justice processes. It provides an essential resource for investigators and criminal lawyers, human rights fact-finders, policy makers, rule of law experts, and academics.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was the first and most celebrated of a wave of international criminal tribunals (ICTs) built in the 1990s and designed to advance liberalism through international criminal law. Model(ing) Justice examines the practice and case law of the ICTY to make a novel theoretical analysis of the structural flaws inherent in ICTs as institutions that inhibit their contribution to social peace and prosperity. Kerstin Bree Carlson proposes a seminal analysis of the structural challenges to ICTs as socially constitutive institutions, setting the agenda for future considerations of how international organizations can perform and disseminate the goals articulated by political liberalism.

Contemporary feminist advocacy in human rights, international criminal law, and peace and security is gripped by the issue of sexual violence in conflict. But it hasn't always been this way. Analyzing feminist international legal and political work over the past three decades, Karen Engle argues that it was not inevitable that sexual violence in conflict would become such a prominent issue. Engle reveals that as feminists from around the world began to pay an enormous amount of attention to sexual violence in conflict, they often did so at the cost of attention to other issues, including the anti-militarism of the women's peace movement; critiques of economic maldistribution, imperialism, and cultural essentialism by feminists from the global South; and the sex-positive positions of many feminists involved in debates about sex work and pornography. The Grip of Sexual Violence in Conflict offers a detailed examination of how these feminist commitments were not merely deprioritized, but undermined, by efforts to address the issue of sexual violence in conflict. Engle's analysis reinvigorates vital debates about feminist goals and priorities, and spurs readers to question much of today's common sense about the causes, effects, and proper responses to sexual violence in conflict.

Der Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen beschloss im Februar 1993 die Errichtung des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs fur das ehemalige Jugoslawien. Art. 15 des Statuts ubertrug den Richtern die Ausformung der Prozessordnung. Art. 20 Abs. 1 verpflichtet die Richter zur Gewahrleistung eines fairen Verfahrens. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit eine Untersuchung der Umsetzung dieser Vorgaben bei der Konstituierung und Zusammensetzung der Richterschaft des Tribunals, seiner Vorgehensweise bei der Ausformung des Prozessrechts sowie der geschaffenen Prozessordnung."

Since World War II, there have been some 250 conflicts throughout the world, leaving between 70-170 million atrocity crime victims. Unlike diseases or natural disasters, the injuries and tragedies of war are largely self-inflicted. Created in response to such outrages, the International Criminal Court (ICC) stands as the first and only permanent juridical body prosecuting genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Victims' Rights and Advocacy at the International Criminal Court introduces readers to the most significant restorative feature of the ICC's procedure: direct victim participation in war crime trials. Under this new model, the ICC has given victims a voice to speak out against their abusers. T. Markus Funk presents the first comprehensive guidance on this innovative dynamic, analyzing not just the procedural rules that apply, but also the practical problems in advocating for victims before the ICC. In the process, Funk provides an overview of ICC trial procedure, a candid assessment of the performance of the ICC and its predecessor tribunals, and a guide to the development of victims' rights under international law. Not only does he identify areas needing reform and reconsideration, but he also provides readers with concrete solutions. Funk, an experienced federal prosecutor and law professor who has advised prosecutors and judges at criminal tribunals as the U.S. Justice Department's Resident Legal Advisor for Kosovo, draws on that experience to suggest ways in which the ICC can improve the lot of victims of the world's worst crimes. This second edition provides a detailed analysis of the newly recognized right of victims to participate in the trials of their accused abusers. The author guides the reader through this unique, controversial body of procedural and substantive rights for victims of atrocity crimes, and discusses how to qualify as Legal Counsel for Victims, and how to seek Reparations. In addition, the author provides updated caselaw and other information to reflect the ICC's current position on victim involvement and related procedure as well as text to show how these changes in the law affect ICC procedure and advocacy.

Despite the growth in international criminal courts and tribunals, the majority of cases concerning international criminal law are prosecuted at the domestic level. This means that both international and domestic courts have to contend with a plethora of relevant, but often contradictory, judgments by international institutions and by other domestic courts. This book provides a detailed investigation into the impact this pluralism has had on international criminal law and procedure, and examines the key problems which arise from it. The work identifies the various interpretations of the concept of pluralism and discusses how it manifests in a broad range of aspects of international criminal law and practice. These include substantive jurisdiction, the definition of crimes, modes of individual criminal responsibility for international crimes, sentencing, fair trial rights, law of evidence, truth-finding, and challenges faced by both international and domestic courts in gathering, testing and evaluating evidence.
Authored by leading practitioners and academics in the field, the book employs pluralism as a methodological tool to advance the debate beyond the classic view of 'legal pluralism' leading to a problematic fragmentation of the international legal order. It argues instead that pluralism is a fundamental and indispensable feature of international criminal law which permeates it on several levels: through multiple legal regimes and enforcement fora, diversified sources and interpretations of concepts, and numerous identities underpinning the law and practice. The book addresses the virtues and dangers of pluralism, reflecting on the need for, and prospects of, harmonization of international criminal law around a common grammar. It ultimately brings together the theories of legal pluralism, the comparative law discourse on legal transplants, harmonization, and convergence, and the international legal debate on fragmentation to show where pluralism and divergence will need to be accepted as regular, and even beneficial, features of international criminal justice.

The Concept of the Civilian: Legal Recognition, Adjudication and the Trials of International Criminal Justice offers a critical account of the legal shaping of civilian identities by the processes of international criminal justice. It draws on a detailed case-study of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to explore two key issues central to these justice processes: first, how to understand civilians as a social and legal category of persons and second, how legal practices shape victims' identities and redress in relation to these persons. Integrating socio-legal concepts and methodologies with insights from transitional justice scholarship, Claire Garbett traces the historical emergence of the concept of the civilian, and critically examines how the different stages of legal proceedings produce its conceptual form in distinction from that of combatants. This book shows that the very notions of civilian, protection and redress that underpin current practices of international criminal justice continue to evoke both definitional difficulties and analytic contestation. Using a unique interdisciplinary approach, the author provides a critical analysis of the relationship between mechanisms of transitional justice and civilians that will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of transitional justice, sociology, law, politics and human rights.

This book provides a full analytical overview of the establishment and functioning of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the newest and most controversial of the UN-sponsored international criminal courts. In 2005, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated in a huge blast that reverberated across Lebanon and the region. The Tribunal was established with a mandate to try the perpetrators of the Hariri killing, as well as those responsible for other killings that are 'connected' to this core crime. Individuals associated with the Hezbollah group have been indicted to be tried in the court in The Hague-but in their absence as their locations are unknown. The Tribunal is the UN's first attempt at addressing terrorism in an international criminal court, and the first attempt to set up international trials following crimes committed in the Middle East region. The court's narrow mandate and unique procedures have led many to question what kind of precedent it will set in a volatile region. This book looks at how the court was established, its foundational principles based on the Statute of the International Criminal Court and Lebanese domestic law, and the possible further development of its case law. It provides an authoritative guide to the procedure of the Tribunal,the status of the Registry, the rights of suspects and accused, trials in absentia, and the regulation of the conduct of counsel, drawing on comparisons to other international courts. The authors include those involved in setting up the court, prosecutors, defence counsel for the suspects, as well as judges and academic commentators who are experts on the issues covered in the book. They provide a probing insight into how the Tribunal came into being, its challenges, controversies, and its achievements to date.

Cultural defences, i.e. claims that certain aspects of a defendant's cultural background should be taken into consideration by courts when adjudicating on their guilt or innocence, have been raised before domestic courts in a variety of jurisdictions. This has been a very sensitive and controversial issue. However, the issue of cultural defences at international tribunals is one that has not yet been fully explored. The main objective of this book is to analyse if the International Criminal Court can, and should, accommodate cultural defences as answers to legal charges, or if the Court should accommodate cultural considerations in other ways.

The law of the EU has an increasing effect on domestic criminal law and poses a growing number of questions to practitioners and their clients. What happens if a client has commited a crime in another country? What if crimes have been committed in multiple countries? What limits does the EU impose on sentencing? In what circumstances can a European Arrest Warrant be granted, and how can a Warrant be challenged? What will be the impact on EU law measures if the UK Government exercises an opt-out? Answering these questions, and offering clear, practical assistance to those working in this complex area, EU Law in Criminal Practice is the only book to offer a comprehensive and practical guide to the interplay between European Union law and UK criminal practice. It enables the busy criminal practitioner to understand the legal landscape that the Treaty of Lisbon created, offering a thorough and practitioner-focused analysis of the relevant regulations and case law. From explanation of the institutional framework through to the substantive law of offences, sentencing, and appeals, the book is an invaluable guide for all engaged in modern criminal practice.

International criminal justice has undergone rapid recent development. Since the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1993, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in the following year, the field has changed beyond recognition. The traditional immunity of presidents or heads of government, prime ministers, and other functionaries acting in an official capacity no longer prevails; the doctrine of superior orders is inapplicable except, where appropriate, as in mitigation; and the gap between international armed conflict and non-international armed conflict has closed. More generally, the bridge has been crossed between the irresponsibility of the state and the criminal responsibility of the individual. As a result, the traditional impunity of the state has practically gone. This book, by one of the former judges of the ICTY, ICTR, and the International Court of Justice, assesses some of the workings of the ICTY that have shaped these developments. In it, Judge Shahabuddeen provides an insightful overview of the nature of this criminal court, established on behalf of the whole of the international community. He reflects on its transformation into one of the leading fora for the growth of international criminal law first-hand, offering a unique perspective on the challenges it has faced. Judge Shahabuddeen's experience in international criminal justice makes this volume essential reading for those interested in, or working with, international criminal law.

This book provides the first comprehensive legal analysis of the twelve war crimes trials held in the American zone of occupation between 1946 and 1949, collectively known as the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMTs). The judgments the NMTs produced have played a critical role in the development of international criminal law, particularly in terms of how courts currently understand war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. The trials are also of tremendous historical importance, because they provide a far more comprehensive picture of Nazi atrocities than their more famous predecessor, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (IMT). The IMT focused exclusively on the 'major war criminals'-the Goerings, the Hesses, the Speers. The NMTs, by contrast, prosecuted doctors, lawyers, judges, industrialists, bankers-the private citizens and lower-level functionaries whose willingness to take part in the destruction of millions of innocents manifested what Hannah Arendt famously called 'the banality of evil'.
The book is divided into five sections. The first section traces the evolution of the twelve NMT trials. The second section discusses the law, procedure, and rules of evidence applied by the tribunals, with a focus on the important differences between Law No. 10 and the Nuremberg Charter. The third section, the heart of the book, provides a systematic analysis of the tribunals' jurisprudence. It covers Law No. 10's core crimes-crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity-as well as the crimes of conspiracy and membership in a criminal organization. The fourth section then examines the modes of participation and defenses that the tribunals recognized. The final section deals with sentencing, the aftermath of the trials, and their historical legacy.

This book brings together leading and emerging scholars and practitioners to present an overview of how regional, international and transnational courts and tribunals are engaging with the environment. With the natural world under unprecedented pressure, the book highlights the challenges and opportunities presented by international dispute resolution for the protection of the environment and the further development of international environmental law. Presented in three parts, it addresses how individual courts and tribunals engage with environmental matters (Part I); how courts and tribunals are resolving key issues common to environmental litigation (Part II); and future opportunities and developments in the field (Part III). The book is an essential one-stop-shop for students, practitioners and academics alike interested in international litigation and the protection of our global environment. Edgardo Sobenes is an international lawyer and consultant in international law (ESILA), Sarah Mead is a lawyer specialising in international environmental and human rights law, and Benjamin Samson is a researcher at the Universite Paris Nanterre and consultant in international law.

Targeting is the primary method for securing strategic objectives in an armed conflict. Failure to comply with the law of targeting jeopardizes the achievement of those aims. It is therefore essential that all those involved in or studying issues surrounding targeting have an accurate and complete understanding of this area of law. This book offers the definitive and comprehensive statement of all aspects of the law of targeting. It is a 'one-stop shop' that answers all relevant questions in depth. It has been written in an open, accessible yet comprehensive style, and addresses both matters of established law and issues of topical controversy.
The text explains the meanings of such terms as 'civilian', 'combatant', and 'military objective'. Chapters are devoted to the core targeting principles of distinction, discrimination, and proportionality, as well as to the relationship between targeting and the protection of the environment and of objects and persons entitled to special protection. New technologies are also covered, with chapters looking at attacks using unmanned platforms and a discussion of the issues arising from cyber warfare. The book also examines recent controversies and perceived ambiguities in the rules governing targeting, including the use of human shields, the level of care required in a bombing campaign, and the difficulties involved in determining whether someone is directly participating in hostilities. This book will be invaluable to all working in this contentious area of law.

This book brings together and critically analyses the disparate conventional, customary, and soft law relating to non-international armed conflict. All the relevant bodies of international law are considered, including international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and international human rights law. The book traces the changes to the legal framework applicable to non-international armed conflict from ad hoc regulation in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, to systematic regulation through the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977 Additional Protocols, to the transformation of the law in the mid-1990s. Armed conflicts ranging from the US civil war, the Algerian War of Independence, and the attempted secession of Biafra, through to the current conflicts in the Colombia, Philippines, and Sudan are all considered. The identification and analysis of the law is complemented by a consideration of the practice, allowing both violations of, and respect for, the law, to be ascertained. Given that non-international armed conflicts are fought between states and non-state armed groups, or between armed groups, particular attention is paid to the oft-neglected views of armed groups. This is done through an analysis of hundreds of statements, unilateral declarations, internal regulations, and bilateral agreements issued by armed groups. Equivalent material emanating from states parties to conflicts is also considered. The book is thus an essential reference point for the law and practice of non-international armed conflicts.

This volume examines the prosecution as an institution and a function in a dozen international and hybrid criminal tribunals, from Nuremberg to the International Criminal Court. It is the result of a sustained collaborative effort among some twenty scholars and (former) tribunal staffers. The starting point is that the prosecution shapes a tribunal's practice and legacy more than any other organ and that a systematic examination of international prosecutors is therefore warranted.
The chapters are organized chronologically, according to the successive phases of the life of the institution and the various stages of the trials. The analysis includes each institution's establishment, mandate and jurisdiction, as well as the prosecutorial framework and strategy, the prosecutor's external relations and the completion of the institution's work. The book also considers the prosecutors' independence and impartiality, and their accountability for their decisions. The volume thus provides a comprehensive picture of the mandate, organization, and operation of the prosecution in international criminal trials.
As the first comprehensive study of an international legal actor whose decisions have widespread political repercussions, this book will be essential reading for all with an interest in international criminal justice.

Since its inception in 2001, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been met with resistance by various African states and their leaders, who see the court as a new iteration of colonial violence and control. In Affective Justice Kamari Maxine Clarke explores the African Union's pushback against the ICC in order to theorize affect's role in shaping forms of justice in the contemporary period. Drawing on fieldwork in The Hague, the African Union in Addis Ababa, sites of postelection violence in Kenya, and Boko Haram's circuits in Northern Nigeria, Clarke formulates the concept of affective justice-an emotional response to competing interpretations of justice-to trace how affect becomes manifest in judicial practices. By detailing the effects of the ICC's all-African indictments, she outlines how affective responses to these call into question the "objectivity" of the ICC's mission to protect those victimized by violence and prosecute perpetrators of those crimes. In analyzing the effects of such cases, Clarke provides a fuller theorization of how people articulate what justice is and the mechanisms through which they do so.

This book sets out and analyses the procedural law applied by international criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It traces the development of international criminal procedure from its roots in the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to its current application by the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia, and the International Criminal Court. All of these tribunals apply a different set of rules. The focus of this book, however, lies on the ICC and its procedural regime as contained in the Rome Statute, the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, and the different Regulations of the Court and of the Prosecutor. The exceptional compromise between common and civil law which formed the basis of the ICC's Statute created a unique procedural order. This book systematically analyses the Court's organisational structure, overall procedural setting, and the individual procedural regulations, and compares and contrasts these to other international criminal tribunals. Amongst the many unresolved procedural issues are the rights of the accused before, during, and after the trial, the disclosure of evidence, the presentation of evidence, the participation of victims, the protection of witnesses, and the cooperation between the ICC and individual states. Through looking at these issues, the book develops a concise and fitting theoretical underpinning for the ICC's procedural order that is not founded on any specific legal culture.

This book examines the concept of individual criminal responsibility for serious violations of international law, i.e. aggression, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Such crimes are rarely committed by single individuals. Rather, international crimes generally connote a plurality of offenders, particularly in the execution of the crimes, which are often orchestrated and masterminded by individuals behind the scene of the crimes who can be termed 'intellectual perpetrators'. For a determination of individual guilt and responsibility, a fair assessment of the mutual relationships between those persons is indispensable.
By setting out how to understand and apply concepts such as joint criminal enterprise, superior responsibility, duress, and the defense of superior orders, this work provides a framework for that assessment. It does so by bringing to light the roots of these concepts, which lie not merely in earlier phases of development of international criminal law but also in domestic law and legal doctrine. The book also critically reflects on how criminal responsibility has been developed in the case law of international criminal tribunals and courts. It thus illuminates and analyses the rules on individual responsibility in international law.