E-Library ‘71 – recent additions – (July 2010, week 3)
Librarians’ Note: This E-Library is maintained by the War Crimes Strategy Forum (WCSF), a strategic coalition of activists and organisations sharing the common goal of assisting the prosecution of war criminals of Bangladesh 1971. Only the members registered to E-Library site will enjoy FULL-TEXT download-access to the entries. It is advised that you open your free-account today by clicking the Registration link. To be able to download full-text of the items stored on this library, or to add new items, you will need additional user-rights which can be requested from the Library-Admin at the Feedback-Address. You are also welcome to suggest new records to the library database. We hope the resources made available on this site will facilitate serious research of high standard on issues relating to the Liberation War of Bangladesh and the prosecution of war criminals.
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Abstract: The paper discusses the factors that determine jurisdiction in international courts with focus on international crimes. These factors include a) the subject matter jurisdiction of the court or tribunal (that is, whether crimes under international law have been committed, particularly during war time); b)whether the territorial state is unable or unwilling to exercise jurisdiction; c) whether the United Nations, and particularly, the Security Council, has intervened because the crimes alleged to have been committed pose a threat to international peace and security, and either the Security Council has invoked its Chapter VII powers (possible primacy jurisdiction), or no State is able or willing to exercise its criminal jurisdiction (complementarity); and finally, d) how grave and/or serious the crimes are and whether the perpetrators are leaders (who may have special responsibilities under international law) or lower-level accused etc.
Abstract: The life and death of Belgium’s universal jurisdiction law is a textbook case of the intersection of law and power in the international arena. A government, its consciousness raised by the increased global attention to individual responsibility for human rights atrocities, enacts a broad statute opening its courts to prosecutions of suspected murderers, torturers, and war criminals around the world. Stung by its peacekeepers’ failure to prevent genocide in Rwanda, a former colony, Belgium eventually utilizes the law to try and convict a handful of accomplices to those atrocities.
Cassese, A. “Reflections on International Criminal Justice.” Modern Law Review. 61.1 (1998): 1-10.
Abstract: Judge Cassese presents arguments in favour of the use of international courts in order to punish war crimes. He argues that the application of justice through a court is better in certain circumstances than amnesties. He examines the merits of international courts rather than national courts, but acknowledges that at present there are several major stumbling blocks to an effective international criminal justice system.
Abstract: The author examines:
I. The juridical basis for the existence of the Nurenbeg War Crime tribunal;
II. The validity of the commission held by the members of the IMT:
III. The sufficiency of the indictment to charge a juridically cognizable offense.
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