Thesis (M.J.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "December 2007." Includes bibliographical references. Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2008]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

This thesis illustrates and analyses the ambiguity of the Bengali middle-class perception regarding the colonial legal and penal institutions, specifically the criminal courts and the jails, in the second half of the nineteenth century. The institutional functioning of the criminal courts and the jails form a marginal part of the thesis. The main focus is the bhadralok perception of these institutions as the repository of "law and order" as established by the colonial rule of law. This thesis contends that though the perceived need for preserving law and order through the rule of law came from the colonial government in the first half of the nineteenth century, it had the approval of the bhadralok. It is further argued that the categories of the criminals in the Bengal Presidency (or province), generated by the colonial government at the site of the criminal courts and the jails, were congruent with the divide separating the higher castes from the lower castes. These categories helped the bhadralok to take on a non-criminal identity, based on their perception of the colonial discourse on the criminal classes. Further, from the mid nineteenth century to the late nineteenth century, the increasing familiarity with the courts and the jails enabled the bhadralok, on the basis of their own changing experience, to construct a non-criminal identity for themselves. The central theme of the thesis is therefore the evolution of a bhadralok noncriminal identity revolving around their experience of the courts and the jails throughout the mid to late nineteenth century. On the basis of this non-criminal identity, the bhadralok in the late nineteenth century stood in opposition to the colonial government's mechanisms of control, namely the criminal courts and the jails, by questioning its right to impose such control on a non-criminal section of society, and thereby immediately imbuing the colonial government with illegality and oppression. But this was possible only after the identity of criminality had been grafted onto the lower sections of the society, the chhotolok. as it enabled the bhadralok to construct the mental image of the criminal courts and the jails as generally applicable only to the chhotolok. This, in turn, rendered the site of the criminal courts and the jails as spaces reserved for the lower sections of society. The first decade of the twentieth century is examined briefly to bring out the contrast of this period as against the bhadralok discourse evolving through the mid to late nineteenth century, which had set out the space of the criminal courts and the jails as desecrated space, unfit for the bhadralok to occupy. Against this background, the national movement endowed the legal and penal procedure with illegality and misrule of law, when they operated on the bhadralok as political prisoners. This was in diametrical contrast to the perception of the legitimacy of the legal and penal institutions when they operated on the chhotolok with the end of preserving law and order through these two institutions.

This treatise addresses the possible creation of an African criminal court for individual criminal responsibility for crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It does so by critically analysing the Statutes of Special Court of Sierra Leone, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in relation to the provisions addressing the principle of individual criminal responsibility, jurisdiction, amnesty and immunity. Another aim is to indicate the strength and weaknesses of the cited statutes in relation to the above provisions. Finally a further aim is to provide an analysis of the statutes, and any other international law applicable and determine whether Africa needs a separate criminal court. The principle conclusion is that statutes are facing challenges in relations to the provisions above. It is established that Africa does not have a regional criminal court and the African Union has attempted to extend jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights to criminal jurisdiction but the process has amounted to heavy criticism and unforeseen legal implications. It is eventually concluded that Africa may consider the creation of a separate criminal court for the future and such a court is currently not needed. Support should be given to the ICC.

The ICC, which came into force in 2002, was held up by human rights activists as a force that would transform a culture of impunity into a culture of accountability. However, after five years of activity, the evidence suggests that the Court's effect has been mixed. Its ability to achieve retributive justice, broader reconciliation and restorative justice, as well as to deter future offences and promote peace has been variable, at best. Despite the Court's claim that politics are not its job, political missteps and support are adversely affecting the work of a judicious Court. Using the cases of Uganda and Darfur, this paper argues that the most significant factors impacting the Court's ability to achieve the four aims outlined are its lack of enforcement capacity, lack of international political will, the result of geo-political interests and concerns over the norm of state sovereignty, and lack of attention to political context by the Court itself.

No description available.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / In 1998, 120 members of the United Nations adopted a treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, designed to address issues such as war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The United States, in cooperation with its European allies, was instrumental in bringing this treaty about. In the end, however, it felt compelled to withdraw its signature, an unusual step signifying a high level of dissatisfaction with the structure and competency of the Court. This thesis argues that, while the United States maintains good relations with Europe, its abandonment of the ICC has constituted a major setback to Euro-American relations, and entailed a loss of face among the international community as a whole. Even as the United States has stood aloof from the Court, fearing that its soldiers and officials could face politically motivated trials, Europeans have continued their vigorous efforts to make the ICC a success. The United States and Europe are now on opposing sides on a major issue of international criminal justice. This has already caused tensions over internationally sanctioned peacekeeping troops, and has the potential to further disrupt the Euro-American partnership, above all in the military sphere. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Dewey. / Vita. / Bibliography: p.323-328. / Ph.D.

Why do states of the Global South initiate international criminal justice processes for domestic atrocity crimes? The phenomenon of Southern agency regarding international criminal justice presents an empirical and theoretical puzzle given the Southern states' defence of Westphalian sovereignty, or the juridical equality of states and domestic non-intervention. International criminal justice challenges this notion of sovereignty by directly prosecuting individuals under international law through international courts. This thesis rejects this theoretical notion that international criminal justice curbs sovereignty, and argues that the initiative for international criminal justice processes is a type of short-term political strategy adopted by Southern state actors to strengthen specific aspects of their statehood. In doing so, the thesis challenges the dominant theoretical explanations of Southern state preference that relies on their relative weakness and the power of external factors, such as Great Power interests or transnational activist networks, and reclaims the possibility of agency for Southern state actors. The argument is derived from a theory developed in this thesis, referred to as judicial extraversion, or a counter-structural theory of strategic action that links the politics of statehood in the Global South and the political opportunities inherent in the nature of international criminal justice, namely, the individualisation of responsibility, criminalisation of specific forms of violence, and the privileged status of the state in the international criminal justice system. It develops this theory through the qualitative case studies of Uganda's self-referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Cambodia's request for an international criminal tribunal to the UN, and the counterexample of Colombia's special domestic criminal justice process for paramilitary demobilisation. The thesis finds that relative weakness of Southern states is insufficient to explain engagement with international criminal justice, and highlights the possibility of paradoxical agency. Finally, the findings suggest that, under particular circumstances, international criminal justice can be used to entrench the authority of weaker states in the international system.

No description available.

This thesis analyzes the technical definition of the crime of persecution for the purpose of prosecutions at the International Criminal Court. The provisions on the crime of persecution are found in Article 7(1)(h) and Article 7(2)(g) of the Rome Statute and Article 7(1)(h) of the Elements of Crimes. Lack of clarity is a difficulty with these provisions. The writer analyzes the provisions by pooling together primary and secondary sources and drawing on the customary international law that has emerged from the ad-hoc International Criminal Tribunals established between 1945 and 2003.