Illicitly Obtained Evidence At The International Criminal Court

This work deals with the exclusion of illicitly obtained evidence at the International Criminal Court. At the level of domestic law, the so-called exclusionary rule has always been a very prominent topic. The reason for this is that the way a court of law deals with tainted evidence pertains to a key aspect of procedural fairness. It concerns the balancing of the right to a fair trial with the interest of society in effective law enforcement. At the international level, however, the subject has not yet been discussed in detail. The present research intends to fill this gap. It provides an overview of the approaches of a number of domestic legal systems as well as of the approaches of the UN ad hoc tribunals and the European Court of Human Rights and uses the different perspectives to develop a version of the exclusionary rule which fits the International Criminal Court. The book is highly recommended for practitioners and researchers in the field of international criminal law and especially the law of international criminal evidence. Petra Viebig is a Public Prosecutor at the Staatsanwaltschaft Hamburg, Germany.

Evidence in International Criminal Trials compares procedural activities relevant for international criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court: evaluation, collection, disclosure, admissibility and presentation of evidence. The book provides guidance on how to confront legal as well as factual issues.

This book provides practitioners, scholars and students with an in-depth analysis of the law of evidence before international criminal tribunals. It treats subjects such as admissibility; hearsay; identification evidence; forensic and documentary evidence. It also discusses procedural issues arising from fair trial rights, state cooperation, witness protection, and the compulsive powers of the court. The main focus of this work is the practice of the United Nations ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. However, it traces the developments of the law of evidence back to the trials conducted by the Allied powers after the Second World War. The authors also discuss the future of the law in this field, with comments on the projected implementation of the Statute and the Rules of Procedure of the permanent International Criminal Court. They conclude with some general remarks on trends in international criminal evidence that will be helpful to international tribunals, "mixed" tribunals (such as those proposed for Sierra Leone and Cambodia), and national courts alike. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

One of the main problems of the International Ad hoc-tribunals in The Hague and Arusha, as well as of the permanent International Court, concerns the conflict between national security and secrecy interests of sovereign States arising in legal proceedings as a result of evidence interests and the court hearing the case. While an International Criminal Court cannot succeed without the necessary competence for gathering evidence, it can also not succeed if it fails to take account of legitimate national security interests. Written by well-known authors and commentators, the articles in the book deal with this controversy from the point of view of comparative law and legal politics. The topics covered focus on experiences and decisions from the practice of both ad hoc-tribunals, as well as political and legal discussions relating to the Statute and Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the permanent International Criminal Court.

Summary: "Written by seasoned scholars and practitioners, this collection of essays provides a most comprehensive analysis of the institutional dynamics and political underpinnings of international criminal justice. They explore and provide critical comment on the main institutional difficulties experienced by International Tribunals."--Publisher description.

This book deals with the prosecution of core crimes and constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of the horizontal and vertical systems of enforcement of international criminal law and of their inter-relationship. It provides a global jurisprudential exposition in assessing the grounds for refusal of surrender to the International Criminal Court and of extradition to another State. It also offers insights into legal perspectives which improve the prevailing enforcement regimes of various models of criminal justice, including hybrid criminal tribunals, special criminal courts, judicial panels and partnerships, and other budding sui generis judicial and/or prosecutorial institutions. The book espouses a human rights law-oriented critique to the enforcement of domestic, regional and international criminal justice and is aimed at legal practitioners (prosecutors, defence lawyers, magistrates and judges), jurists, criminal justice experts, penologists, legal researchers, human rights activists and law students. Christopher Soler lectures Maltese criminal law, international criminal law and public international law at the University of Malta. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

This commentary brings together the relevant body of law on evidence at international criminal courts and tribunals and provides both a detailed description and analysis thereof. This includes a critical assessment of differing approaches across the institutions as well as jurisprudential trends and developments. It therefore serves as a comprehensive guide to the law on evidence and international criminal procedures for practitioners and scholars alike.

Presents a statement of the law and practice of Scotland's sheriff courts