Irish Referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon: News Coverage

By Björn Elberling

RTE logo.gifEuropean readers particularly will probably be interested in the ratification process of the treaty of Lisbon aka the Reform Treaty, particularly the referendum in the Republic of Ireland. Ireland is the only EU/EC member state to hold a referendum on ratification, and apparently the voters are rather divided. It will be interesting to see whether the Irish will do to the Treaty of Lisbon what the French and Dutch did to the European Constitution in 2005. The referendum will be held on 12 June, meanwhile updated polls and other news are gathered at the website of the Irish broadcasting service. Tip o’ the hat to my colleague Killian O’Brien.

ICTY News: Sentences of Bosnian army commanders further reduced on appeal.

By Björn Elberling

Hadzihasanovic.jpgThe ICTY Appeals Chamber today partially granted the appeals of Enver Hadzihasanovic (pictured left) and Amir Kubura, high-ranking officers in the Bosnian army during the Bosnian war. The Trial Chamber had found them guilty of failing to prevent or punish crimes committed by their subordinates and sentenced them to five years and 2 years, six months, respectively. The Appeals Chamber reversed some of these finding and accordingly lowered the sentences to three years, six months and two years, respectively. (The Trial Chamber judgment can be found here, a summary of the Appeals Judgment is available here) As Hadzihasanovic has already spent more than three years in detention and may well be eligible for early release, it is to be expected that he will be released very soon. Kubura had already been granted early release shortly after the Trial Chamber Judgment. [UPDATE: Hadzihasanovic has indeed been released the day after the Appeals Judgment] [And a final UPDATE: The judgment is now available here] Continue reading

Interesting Website: International Law Video Library

By Björn Elberling

Tip of the hat to my colleague Christian Tams, who pointed me to a website that readers might find interesting: The International Law Video Library by Jean Allain of Queen’s University Belfast is a collection of videos on various aspects of international law, including a number of interviews with both academic experts and practitioners. Check it out!

ICL Defence – Interesting Article and a Little Rant from the Sidelines on Early Release

By Björn Elberling

ictr.gifOver at Opinio Juris, there is a discussion on an interesting article by Jenia Iontcheva Turner concerning "Defense Perspectives on Law and Politics in International Criminal Trials". Prof. Turner has interviewed several defence attorneys practicing at the ICTY, ICTR and SCSL about their perspectives on several aspects of trials before the ICTR. I confess to only having skimmed the article so far, but I can already say that I found it very interesting. The article is available here, the blog discussion at OJ here, here and here. Anyway – and here comes my awkward attempt at a segue to the main topic of this post – , Prof. Turner reports that while not too many defence attorneys view the Tribunals as "deeply political", that view is more prevalent at the ICTR than at the ICTY. I have to say that a lot of times when researching the jurisprudence of the ad hoc Tribunals, I can understand that defence attorneys at the ICTR would find their work a bit, well, frustrating to say the least. The most recent example that I chanced upon was that of early release. More below the fold. Warning: This is going to be a bit ranty. Continue reading

CfP/CfC for Ph.D students: “Europe – a Continent of Immigration? Legal Challenges in the Construction of the European Migration Policy.”

By Björn Elberling

Yes, I will get back to substantive posts soon, but first let me pass along another Call for Papers, this one aimed at "young scholars", i.e. doctoral students and very recent Ph.D.s Given the question in the conference topic and the recent immigration policy of European states, I’d be tempted to say "Well, it sure doesn’t want to be", but I’m sure some other young scholars can come up with more in depth contributions… Anyway, the CfP is in preparation for an "International Workshop for Young Scholars" at Humboldt University Berlin in November, with travel and accomodation costs covered for those who present a paper. Short proposals for papers in English or French to be submitted by the end of May, finalized versions to be sent in a few weeks before the conference. More details here

CfP for undergrad students: “Human Rights in Times of Terrorism”

By Björn Elberling

Another Call for Papers. This one, by the Göttingen Journal of International Law, is aimed explicitly at undergrad students. The GoJIL is apparently trying to introduce the concept of US-style student-run law journals to Germany (They have even adopted the dreaded bluebook!). Whether that is generally a good idea, given the widespread criticism of that concept in the US and the fact that the trend there seems to be rather towards peer-reviewed publications, is of course an interesting question. One undoubtedly positive aspect, especially for undergrad students, is that the Journal provides an excellent opportunity to get a paper published. Besides an Open Call for Papers, the GoJIL is conducting an International Law Essay Competition on the topic of Human Rights in Times of Terrorism. The deadline for submissions is 15 June.

And one for the Germans

By Björn Elberling

Another Call for Papers, this time in German, on "Law in Times of Terror". Tip of the hat to my colleague Christian J. Tams for bringing this to my attention. Das Humboldt Forum Recht, "die juristische Internet-Zeitschrift an der HU Berlin" organisiert unter der Schirmherrschaft des Außenministers einen Beitragswettbewerb zum Thema "Recht in Zeiten des Terrors". Den Gewinnern winken Geldpreise und ein Treffen mit dem Minister. Einsendeschluss ist Ende Oktober 2008. Ausschreibungstext hier (Kleine Pingelei: Wie "unter dem Eindruck zweier Weltkriege … die Haager Landkriegsordnung … vereinbart" wurde, wird wohl ein Geheimnis bleiben, aber das Thema als solches mag ja für den einen oder die andere recht spannend sein.)

Call for Candidates – Marie Curie Programme in The Hague

Grotius Centre.jpg By Björn Elberling

Returning from my, ahem, unannounced hiatus, let me kick off the "Service" aspect of our blog by referring interested readers to a few interesting Calls for Candidates. 2008 will be the last year that the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies in The Hague is conducting the Marie Curie Top Summer School and the Marie Curie Research Course in the field of International Criminal Law. Continue reading

Guilty Pleas and Sentencing in International Criminal Law – Part 2

Plavsic.jpg By Björn Elberling

In the first post, I showed that the general sentencing discount to be achieved by those who plead guilty before the ICTY pleas is not particularly high. I also voiced a suspicion that the discount may be a lot more substantial for high-ranking accused whose statements may be worth more in terms of historiography. This suspicion is confirmed by a look at those few individual judgments in which Trial Chambers did attach numerical values to individual sentencing factors – four of these cases concerned high-ranking political and military leaders. Continue reading

Guilty Pleas and Sentencing in International Criminal Law – Part 1

By Todorovic.jpgBjörn Elberling

The first topic I will blog about in some detail, which is a bit of a byproduct of my dissertation, concerns a question of sentencing in international criminal law, namely sentencing in the context of guilty pleas. (The picture to the left shows Stevan Todorovic, one of the first accused to be sentenced after a guilty plea based on a plea agreement) 

Sentencing generally is a very contentious issue, especially for the ICTY, which is often criticized as passing much too lenient sentences – not only, but especially where sentences are the result of a guilty plea based on a plea agreement between prosecutor and accused. The common feeling seems to be that plea bargains have resulted in unduly lenient sentences, that truth and justice have been traded away in return for savings in time and judicial resources, to the detriment of the Tribunals’ legitimacy.

I will try to find out to what extent this is actually the case.

Continue reading