Comparative and International Criminal Justice Systems

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale June ◽  
Dale June
2008 ◽  
Vol 90 (870) ◽  
pp. 441-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mina Rauschenbach ◽  
Damien Scalia

AbstractDespite the growing attention being paid to “victims” in the framework of criminal proceedings, this attention does not seem to be meeting their needs under either national criminal justice systems or the international regime. In the latter, the difficulties encountered by the victims are aggravated by factors specifically arising from the prosecution and punishment of mass crimes at international level. This has prompted the authors to point out that the prime purpose of criminal law is to convict or acquit the accused, and to suggest that the task of attending to the victims should perhaps be left to other entities.


Author(s):  
Samuel Matsiko

Abstract The prosecution of international crimes in domestic and international criminal justice systems may involve aged defendants. Such prosecutions often implicate aged witnesses as well. There is a dearth of literature not only on the expressive value and optics of punishing aged defendants but also on the role of aged witnesses in the trial process. The need to interrogate these optics and perceptions—be it from an empirical or a theoretical perspective—is not only necessary, it is also timely. This article assesses the prosecution of Chadian dictator Hissène Habré in 2015–2016 at the Extraordinary African Chambers. This trial not only concerned an aged defendant, but also over 90 witnesses, the majority of whom was aged. This article explores the dialectics between the optics of punishing aged defendants and the optics of aged witnesses at the Habré trial.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
N I Kostenko

The article examines the role of international criminal justice in fulfilling the important tasks set by the world community in the 21st century to stabilize the criminal justice system, which should become a fundamental element of the rule of law structure; on the recognition of the central role of the criminal justice system in the development of international criminal justice. The work focuses on the need for a holistic approach to reforming the criminal justice system in order to improve the effectiveness of international criminal justice systems in the fight against crime.


Author(s):  
Kjersti Lohne

The chapter analyses the cosmopolitan penal imaginary building on western domestic penality, delving into the relationship between human rights sensibilities and criminal justice mentalities in the ‘fight against impunity’. Through the fieldwork in Uganda and Rwanda, the chapter describes asymmetries between the international and national criminal justice systems. It shows how international criminal justice circulates transnationally between different geographical sites via human rights NGOs and is closely linked to human rights expertise, and how human rights NGOs turn international criminal justice into issues about social justice. Applying a sociology of punishment perspective, the chapter brings out the similarities and differences in ‘penal imaginations’ between domestic and international criminal justice, and argues that international criminal justice both echoes the national and departs from it. For example, while international criminal justice relies upon retributive and expressive undertones, it makes no appeal to punitive sensibilities: a fact that can be understood in light of the close relation between international criminal justice and human rights NGOs. Yet, it is argued that human rights NGOs rely too strongly on punitive answers, and that amnesties can be just a matter of pragmatism in situations of profound violence. Thus, while the ICC has both retributive and reparative aims, the situation in northern Uganda demonstrates how international criminal justice became an impediment to peace. Moreover, the chapter reveals how a lot of practical issues had simply not been ‘thought of’ when setting up the ICC, such as acquittals and asylum-seeking witnesses.


Author(s):  
Christoph Burchard

We experience today the disruption of certainties that are foundational to legal orders. This also affects criminal law, how we practice and theorize it. The digital revolution, the rise of authoritarianism and populism as well as the challenges to western (liberal) multilateralism, all of this (and many other developments) weaken the validity of the foundational conditions of criminal justice systems. This is especially true of international criminal justice. This (brief and programmatic) contribution argues that we must take these upheavals of certainties seriously. To this end, (international/ criminal) law must be justified with good reasons and better empirical data. Meer symbolism as well as an uncritical adherence to the status quo ante do longer seem feasible.


Author(s):  
Chrysanthi S. Leon ◽  
Corey S. Shdaimah

Expertise in multi-door criminal justice enables new forms of intervention within existing criminal justice systems. Expertise provides criminal justice personnel with the rationale and means to use their authority in order to carry out their existing roles for the purpose of doing (what they see as) good. In the first section, we outline theoretical frameworks derived from Gil Eyal’s sociology of expertise and Thomas Haskell’s evolution of moral sensibility. We use professional stakeholder interview data (N = 45) from our studies of three emerging and existing prostitution diversion programs as a case study to illustrate how criminal justice actors use what we define as primary, secondary, and tertiary expertise in multi-agency working groups. Actors make use of the tools at their disposal—in this case, the concept of trauma—to further personal and professional goals. As our case study demonstrates, professionals in specialized diversion programs recognize the inadequacy of criminal justice systems and believe that women who sell sex do so as a response to past harms and a lack of social, emotional, and material resources to cope with their trauma. Trauma shapes the kinds of interventions and expertise that are marshalled in response. Specialized programs create seepage that may reduce solely punitive responses and pave the way for better services. However empathetic, they do nothing to address the societal forces that are the root causes of harm and resultant trauma. This may have more to do with imagined capacities than with the objectively best approaches.


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