Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Initially, many Rwandans placed their hopes in the well-funded International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) but it has been plagued by inefficiencies and delays. Although the Rwandan national courts have tried a significantly larger number of cases than the ICTR, they are also criticized as being too slow. Therefore, the government of Rwanda has proposed using the "Gacaca" traditional courts to accelerate post-genocide justice. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether, and under what conditions, the Gacaca courts can be an effective mechanism of justice and national reconciliation. / Captain, Rwanda Army

This dissertation in four essays critically examines the emergence of international criminal courts: their international political underpinnings, context, and the impact of their political production in relation to liberal legalism, liberal political theory, and history. The essays conceive of international criminal legal bodies both as political projects at their inception and as institutions that deny their own political provenance. The work is primarily one of political theory at the intersection of history, international relations, international criminal law, and the politics of memory. The first essay questions Nuremberg's legacy on the United States' exceptionalist view of international law and its deviant practice, while the second essay explores the relationship between exploding inequality and the triumph of the human rights movement as well as the costs of international prosecutions to the detriment of transformative politics. The third essay explores the relationship between history and international criminal courts, as well as the limits of their engagement, while the fourth examines the idea of legalism - rule following as a moral ethos - in the context of real political trials.

Graduation Theses " International aspects mixed criminal tribunals (in examples of Cambodia, Lebanon, East Timor and Sierra Leone)"deal with basic attributes of this institution as generally so in particular examples of Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the Special Panels in East Timor and Special Court for Sierra Leone. Besides description of theme, concentrates thesis on question of internationalization of particular institutions and their classification from the most internationalized institutions to almost domestic tribunals. We pay attention to wider context, which is relevant to examined question.

Univ., Diss.--Tilburg, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. 499 - 519.

Univ., Diss.--Regensburg, 2004. / Literaturverz. S. [339] - 370.

Esta dissertação investiga o instituto jurídico da transação penal, aplicado no âmbito dos Juizados Criminais e a sua relação com os princípios constitucionais que garantem aos cidadãos direitos fundamentais de natureza processual, inclusive. São estudados a correlação entre os conceitos de processo e procedimento e a prática de cada ato procedimental que culminam com a transação penal: da lavratura do Termo Circunstanciado de Ocorrência pela autoridade policial à Audiência Preliminar. O ponto de partida da investigação é a eventual tensão entre os princípios processuais de viés garantista e a busca pela eficiência da prestação da tutela jurisdicional penal, como geradora de déficit de garantias por causa do desequilíbrio dessa equação na atual prática da transação penal. A investigação parte de uma revisão de bibliografia sobre o tema e também da análise de dados estatísticos a respeito da tipologia penal das ocorrências e sobre a natureza das sentenças prolatadas no ano de 2009, nos Juizados Criminais do Estado de Pernambuco. São analisadas amostras de casos reais submetidos a juízo para cotejar a prática da transação penal com os princípios processuais que a informam. A pesquisa demonstra a existência de desequilíbrio entre garantismo e eficiência na prática da Transação Penal no Brasil e propõe bases para concretização do instituto sob o pálio dos princípios processuais constitucionais, notadamente do devido processo legal e seus corolários da ampla defesa e do contraditório / This dissertation investigates the legal institute of the penal transaction applied within the grounds of the Special Criminal Court and its relation with the constitutional principles that guarantee fundamental rights for the citizens in the legal process area. It will be studied the correlation between the concepts of process and procedure and the practice of each procedural act which culminates in the penal transaction: since the transcription of the Detailed Occurrence Term by the police authority to the Preliminary Hearing. The starting point of this investigation is the eventual tension between the legal process principles which is a way of guaranteeing the legal jurisdiction service and the search for efficiency of the penal jurisdiction service as a way of undermining the legal guarantees due to the imbalance of this equation in the current practice of the penal transaction. The investigation starts from a bibliographical revision about the subject and also the analysis of statistical data about the typology of the occurrences and the nature of the legal sentences handed down in the year of 2009 in the Special Criminal Court of the State of Pernambuco. Samples of real cases submitted to the criminal courts are analyzed in order to confront the praxis of the penal transaction with the legal process principles used as basis for that matter. This research demonstrate the existence of the imbalance between garantism and efficiency in the praxis of the Penal Transaction in Brazil and it proposes the basis to materialize this institute together with the constitutional process principles, specially the principle of the due process of law and its corollaries of the wide defense and contradictory

Le principe de l'égalité des armes est devenu, à travers la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l'homme, la pierre angulaire du droit à un procès équitable. Il implique qu'aucune partie ne soit placée dans une situation nettement plus défavorable par rapport à celle de son adversaire. L'essor de ce standard au niveau international et l'intensification du phénomène de circulation normative ont conduit les juridictions pénales internationales et internationalisées à reconnaître, de manière prétorienne et unifiée, ce principe et à l'importer dans leur contentieux afin d'assurer la légitimité de leurs décisions. Toutefois, ce principe directeur du procès entre en tension avec un autre objectif assigné à la justice pénale internationale : l'efficacité de la lutte contre l'impunité. Perçue comme un frein à la répression, l'acception de l'égalité des armes a été cantonnée tant dans sa substance que dans sa procédure de mise en œuvre. Les juridictions reposent, en outre, sur des déséquilibres structurels et procéduraux, puisque la défense, "pilier oublié", manque de moyens pour réaliser ses missions, contrairement au bureau du procureur, organe "tout-puissant". Dans ces circonstances, le déséquilibre inhérent aux interactions entre le procureur et l'accusé ne peut pas être compensé. Pour redonner sa valeur et sa portée de principe directeur du procès à l'égalité des armes, des propositions de rééquilibrages et de modifications paradigmatiques du contentieux seront alors effectuées. Ainsi, la justice pénale internationale pourra pleinement retrouver sa légitimité. / The principle of equality of arms has become, through the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the cornerstone of the right to a fair trial. It implies that no party shall be placed in a substantial disadvantage vis-à-vis his opponent. The development of this standard at the international level and the intensification of normative interactions phenomenon have led international and internationalized criminal courts to recognize, as a court creation and in unified way, this principle and import it into their litigation procedure to ensure the legitimacy of their decisions. However, this guiding principle of the trial conflicts with another objective assigned to international criminal justice: the effectiveness of the fight against i:mpunity. Perceived as a barrier to repression, the equality of arms’ meaning was restricted both in in substance and in its implementation process. Furthermore, the courts are based on structural and procedural imbalances, since the defense, "forgotten pillar", lacks of resources to carry out its missions, unlike the prosecutor's office, which would be an "almighty" organ. In these circumstances, the inherent imbalance in the interactions between the prosecutor and the accused person cannot be compensated. In order to restore the value and scope of equality of arms as a principle of the trial, proposals for rebalancing and paradigmatic changes of the litigation will be made. Thus, internationally criminal justice can fully regain its legitimacy.

This thesis seeks to answer the principal question as to whether international criminal justice systems can serve as adequate truth-ascertaining forums. In doing so, it reviews the practice of three international criminal justice systems: the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is not the purpose of this research to review the black letter law adopted and applied by these international tribunals and court, but rather to review the implementation of the legal principles in practice. It is a socio-legal research project which focuses on the practice of the tribunals and court. It discusses socio-legal, institutional and political issues relating to the ascertainment of the truth in international criminal justice. In addition, it examines the gaps between the theory and practice of ascertaining the truth in the ICTY, ICTR and ICC. It does so principally by exploring the roles of the parties, participants and judges in ascertaining the truth. This includes the obstacles they face in doing so and the responses given, if any, to accommodate these difficulties. Challenges include the politicised climate of most post-conflict societies, the remoteness of the crime base areas from the seat of the Court, the lack of enforcement mechanisms and reliance on State cooperation, as well as the unfamiliarities with the cultural and linguistic features of the affected communities. This thesis reveals that these difficulties are not the principal cause of truth-searching impediments. Indeed, it is asserted that the ascertainment of the truth can be fair and effective notwithstanding these difficulties. It also demonstrates that truth-ascertaining impediments are mainly caused by failures to adequately investigate the crimes and relevant evidence. At the ICTY, investigations have been carried out in the most efficient and fair manner possible under the circumstances. By contrast, the ICTR and ICC investigations are far from adequate and should be improved. The Prosecution should make more efforts to obtain the best evidence available. It further concludes that international justice systems have set their goals too highly. Instead of seeking to meet objectives such as reconciliation, peace and security, they should restrict their focus to the question as to whether the guilt of a particular accused has been established in respect of the crimes charged.

- Sexual violence on women in armed conflicts - the role of the international criminal courts The main purpose of the thesis is to analyse the role of international criminal courts notably the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It will analyse the process of the development of the international individual criminal responsibility of the perpetrators of sexual violence on women in the course of war. Sexual violence on women played an almost integral part of every armed conflict since the beginning of warfare. Despite this fact, the topic of sexual violence on women has been, until recently, generally ignored by politicians, historians and lawyers. The relevant treaties of the international humanitarian law also either ommited or trivialized rape and other crimes of a sexual nature. Not until the worst atrocities were committed in the armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda at the beginning of the nineties was the sexual violence recognized as a serious crime which causes great suffering to victims, both physically and mentoly, and has to be properly investigated and prosecuted. In respect of the fact, that sexual violence has, in the last decades, become a particularly effective weapon of war rather than a random...

Au Canada, la littérature montre que les personnes autochtones sont surreprésentées dans le système de justice pénale depuis des décennies Ce phénomène a souvent été lié au colonialisme. La jurisprudence et les modifications apportées au Code criminel canadien ont pris cette approche en compte. Les affaires R. c. Gladue et R. c. Ipeelee mis en évidence l’importance pour les juges de reconnaître les circonstances uniques des accusés autochtones. L'application des principes Gladue a suscité beaucoup de débats par le biais d'analyses d'études de cas. Pour enrichir et approfondir ces travaux, un compte rendu empirique analysant le point de vue des avocats de la défense pénale lorsqu'ils présentent ce type de considérations devant les tribunaux pénaux serait utile. Je me base sur 75 entretiens semi-structurés avec 64 avocats de la défense pénale représentant des clients autochtones dans des zones urbaines, suburbaines, nordiques, éloignées et rurales de l'Ontario. En ce qui concerne la reconnaissance par les acteurs judiciaires des arguments relatifs à la discrimination anti-autochtone, à la violence et aux préjudices causés par l'État colonial, les participants ont adopté une position relativement prévisible : cela dépend de multiples facteurs, notamment de qui ils sont, de la personne en face d'eux, de la juridiction et du type de tribunal devant lequel ils plaident, de l'identité de leur client et du délit commis. Cependant, les directives Gladue semblent encore souvent ignorées par les acteurs judiciaires. Mes conclusions dénoncent l’inadéquation des tribunaux traditionnels pour de nombreuses personnes autochtones, tout en illustrant comment les tribunaux pénaux du Canada sont ancrés dans les inégalités et les reproduisent. Mes conclusions soulignent également la nécessité d'augmenter le financement des avocats qui représentent les défendeurs autochtones marginalisés. / In Canada, research shows that indigenous people have been overrepresented in the criminal justice system for decades This phenomenon has been tied to colonialism by many Jurisprudence and modifications to Canada’s criminal code have been following along with this approach. R. v. Gladue and R. v. Ipeelee made significant considerations involving the duty of judges to recognize the unique circumstances of indigenous accused. Much ink has been spilled about the application of Gladue principles through case study analyses. What could complement and extend this work, is an empirical account that analyzes criminal defence lawyers’ point of view when presenting these types of considerations in criminal courts. I draw on 75 semi-structure interviews with 64 criminal defence lawyers representing indigenous clients in urban, suburban, northern, remote and rural areas of Ontario. When talking about court officials recognizing arguments about anti-indigenous discrimination, violence and colonial state harms, participants presented a somewhat predictable stance: it depends on multiple factors, including, but not limited to who they are, who is in front of them, what is the jurisdiction and type of court they are presenting their case at, who their client is and what crime they committed. Still, court officials still appear to disregard Gladue directives. My findings denounce the unsuitability of traditional courts to many indigenous peoples, all while illustrating how Canada’s criminal courts are embedded in and reproduce inequalities. They also emphasize the critical need for increased funding for lawyers representing marginalized indigenous defendants.