Much Cry and Little Wool?: Determining the Exact Role of the Inter-national Criminal Court in Transitional Justice Efforts

The International Criminal Court (“ICC”) is a milestone in the fight against impunity. However, the expectations for what the ICC can achieve have often been distorted. Thus, the main research question of this Article is: what exactly is the role of the ICC within transitional justice efforts? My answer consists of three parts. First, there is a need to delimit the ICC’s mandate, namely, what it means to be an international criminal tribunal as opposed to other international bodies, and how the ICC is embedded in a system which includes the States Parties to the ICC Statute. Second, academics and practitioners need to bear in mind that only few perpetrators (the “persons most responsible”) …

Reparation Modalities at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)

Abstract In the last decade, the ECCC has ordered reparations for victims of the Khmer Rouge’s mass atrocities committed in Cambodia during the 1970s. Various scholars have examined those reparations ordered by the ECCC. Yet, this is the first academic piece to assess the ECCC’s reparation modalities under the UN Reparation Principles, which contain key standards on reparations for victims of atrocities. Overall, the ECCC has ordered important rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition measures to redress victims’ harm. This is a meaningful current development with regard to reparations for victims of atrocities. However, the ECCC’s reparation law and practice exhibits so…

Victims and appeals at the International Criminal Court (ICC) : evaluation under international human rights standards

Scholars have examined victim participation and reparations at the ICC. Nevertheless, no academic study focuses on victim participants and victims as parties (reparations claimants) in ICC appeals under international human rights law (IHRL) standards. This article seeks to: determine how victims’ roles as victim participants and parties (reparations claimants) take place in ICC appeals; and evaluate ICC’s law/practice on victims’ procedural roles/rights in appeals under IHRL. Victims at the ICC exercise procedural rights to: voice their views and concerns in appeals against final and interlocutory decisions (victim participants); and appeal reparations orders (parties). ICC’s law/practice o…

Victims at the Central African Republic's Special Criminal Court

The Central African Republic's Special Criminal Court (SCC), the latest hybrid criminal tribunal, may be considered an important legal development concerning victims of mass atrocities in international criminal justice mechanisms due to certain characteristics. Yet there is no academic commentary on victims at the SCC; this piece seeks to fill the gap. First it considers restorative justice as a general framework for victims’ roles and rights in criminal justice in contexts of mass atrocities. Second, victim matters at the SCC are examined: victim protection, victims as civil parties, and reparations. Overall, this paper argues that provisions on victims’ roles and rights contained in SCC i…

The Indeterminacy of Precedent : Negotiating the Admissibility of Victim Participant Testimony before the International Criminal Court

Abstract The icc represents a legal laboratory that is still consolidating itself, with multiple unclarities in evidence and procedural law requiring resolution through jurisprudence. Our paper draws on interaction analysis to unpack this process, focusing on the jurisprudential construction of ‘dual status’ victim participant testimony. To elucidate how this evidentiary/procedural element is locally negotiated, we examine an excerpt from the Ongwen hearing transcripts, in which the defense objects against the testimony by a dual status witness called by the victim participants’ legal representative. The analysis traces how the defense counsel’s objection is anchored in a trajectory of prio…

The Rohingya People and the International Court of Justice: Religion-Related Legal Analysis