Legal Activism or Ex-Post Justice Adrian Kreutz, Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Amsterdam Over Gaza, the international criminal justice system (ICJS), spearheaded by the International Criminal Court (ICC), must pick a trench: Does international criminal justice entail the active…
An online article by Tonny R. Kirabira (Ph.D law researcher at University of Portsmouth)* PDF version available here. I. Introduction In recent years, there have been significant debates about the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court (the ICC or the…
An annotation by Photeine Lambridis, Managing Editor. PDF version available here. I. Introduction The complicity of corporations in international crimes is not a new phenomenon, however multinational corporations are increasingly participating in the direct commission of crimes of atrocity.[1] By…
This installment in our ongoing series of book reviews looks at Children’s Rights and the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility by Don Cipriani. Michael Gigante’s review takes a critical eye towards the arguments Cipriani advances in favor of requiring all nations to establish a minimum age of criminal responsibility.
By Michael V. Gigante
Ideas about the proper role of criminal responsibility in juvenile justice tend to fall along a welfare-justice continuum. The welfare approach, prominent at the birth of the modern notion of a juvenile justice system, essentially dismissed the notions of competence and criminal responsibility for children. State authorities intervened to make benevolent decisions on behalf of children, who were portrayed as objects without liberty rights. On the other end of the continuum, the justice approach—towards which clear shifts have occurred in recent decades—places criminal responsibility and children’s alleged competence at the center of juvenile justice. Accountability, due process, and punishment are the foundations of this approach. In Children’s Rights and the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility: A Global Perspective, Don Cipriani points out the flaws of both these approaches and describes the merits of a children’s rights approach as a way to mediate between the tensions of the welfare and justice approaches.
JILP has awarded the Jerome A. Cohen Prize for International Law and East Asia to Professor Margaret Lewis (Seton Hall) for her article Controlling Abuse to Maintain Control: The Exclusionary Rule in China. The abstract: In July 2010, the People’s…
By Graham Dumas, (J.D. Candidate 2011)
Much has been made in recent(ish) literature about the defects of criminal tribunals in post-conflict societies. Multiple authors over the past decade have rightly noted that such fora have dubious positive effects on the transitional justice process when viewed internally: tribunals fail to deter war criminals either because the chances of prosecution are very low, or because offenders act within the context of overwhelming social stress, often believing they are working for the greater good of society; as a measure of retributive justice, tribunals fail because the vast majority of perpetrators go unpunished; trials may upset the delicate balance of peace and conciliation, which in the end is the bedrock of ongoing stability in post-conflict societies. The list is long, and the points are largely valid.
This edition of our ongoing series of book reviews offers a critical but ultimately positive take on Kamari Maxine Clarke’s Fictions of Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Challenge of Legal Pluralism in Sub-Saharan Africa. This book review is particularly timely, as the recent ECCC verdict in the “Duch” trial reminds us of that court’s landmark decision earlier this summer, which rejected one controversial form of “joint criminal enterprise” liability. Kelly Geoghegan’s review, published in issue no. 42:3 of JILP, takes the opportunity to level her own criticism, or skepticism, at JCE theory.
By Kelly Geoghegan
Fictions of Justice is Kamari Maxine Clarke’s searching anthropological critique of both the international rule of law movement and its flagship tribunal, the International Criminal Court (ICC). Clarke explores the unspoken assumptions, or “fictions,” that underlie this movement, showing that these assumptions privilege Western ideas of justice over African ones and obscure the post-colonial economic forces behind Africa’s turmoil. Ultimately, Fictions of Justice is an anthropological work, not a legal text. Still, the book has potent insights to offer legal practitioners, particularly activists working “on behalf of victims” to achieve “universal” ideals of justice.
Submission Deadline: 24 September 2010
In honor of Professor Jerome A. Cohen, who turns 80 on July 1, the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics is seeking papers addressing the interaction between the international legal system and Chinese and East Asian law and legal thought. East Asia’s distinctive institutions and legal systems continue to engage in a thought-provoking conversation with the global legal order, one that challenges traditional assumptions about international law. Such interaction shows signs of effecting transformative changes both within domestic systems and at the international level. With the Jerome A. Cohen Prize, the Journal of International Law and Politics will honor a novel contribution to this growing body of scholarship. Papers may focus on any substantive discipline, although special consideration will be given to work relating to the subject areas currently taught by Professor Cohen: criminal justice, foreign investment law, and the role of Chinese legal thought in international law.