This is the first book to analyse how civil society tribunals implement and develop international law. With multi-disciplinary contributions covering tribunals in Europe, Latin America and Asia, this edited collection will interest scholars of law, criminology, human rights, politics, sociology, anthropology and international relations.

The papers in this collection bring together a wide and diverse range of viewpoints to consider how the catastrophic consequences of deadly armed conflict can be addressed. Commentators are drawn from the United Nations and its agencies, key non- governmental organisations, world-class academic circles, senior members of government, leading human rights lawyers and judges with experience in international criminal law. These experts address deadly conflict in a comprehensive fashion covering all its stages: the causes and prevention of conflict; conflict resolution and peace-building; international criminal law and international humanitarian law and the role of the United Nations, humanitarian organisations and peacekeepers in post conflict situations. This collection is for those with an existing interest and expertise in international law, international relations, peace studies and criminal justice as well as for those who wish to become conversant with emerging developments in these fields.

This book provides a critical introduction to the core elements of international criminal law. It does so by provoking thought on what international criminal law is, or could be, by contrasting the practice of widely recognised state-based actors and institutions such as the International Criminal Court with practices associated with non-state actors in particular citizens' tribunals. International criminal law is now established as an essential legal and institutional response to atrocity. However, it faces a series of political and practical challenges. It is vital to consider its limits and potential, as well as the ways and extent to which those limitations might be addressed. Many actors with very different visions of its nature and parameters play a role in shaping the meaning of international criminal law whether that be in official or unofficial spaces. This book explores the principles and institutions of international criminal law alongside the alternative visions of it put forward by citizens' tribunals. In so doing it encourages reflection on that law's multiple meanings and usages in order to provoke consideration of what it means, and might mean, to deploy international criminal law today.

People’s Tribunals are independent, peaceful, grassroots movements, created by members of civil society, to address impunity that is associated with ongoing or past atrocities. As such, they offer society an alternative history and create a space for healing and reconciliation to take place that may otherwise be stifled by political agendas and legal technicalities. Since the 1960’s, People’s Tribunals have grown and developed to address many kinds of situations, from genocide to environmental degradation. This book presents a balance of academic and practitioner perspectives on People’s Tribunals. It explores key questions relating to their formation and roles and discusses what they can offer to victims and survivors. The volume provides an introduction to the subject, theoretically informed discussion reflecting different perspectives, and a range of contributions focusing on different types of People’s Tribunals and various aspects of their operation. The authors analyse advantages and disadvantages of these movements in a variety of contexts. The impact and contribution they have in the international criminal law and international human rights context is also discussed. The book will be welcomed by those interested in international criminal law, human rights, environmental justice, transitional justice and international relations.

If the European political space has been extensively explored, research has remained all too often focused on the institutions of the European Union and the Council of Europe rather than on the actors who make Europe. This dictionary brings a new angle to scholarship on Europe by systematically investigating its actors: those who work within the institutions or in close contact with them; those who are the targets of European policies; those in the name of whom reforms are carried out; those who promote Europe and those who oppose it. It showcases a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach that bridges the usual separation between the European Union and the Council of Europe. In each entry, contributors selected among the leading specialists in their fields of research present the state of the art and the most current research perspectives on European actors. Students, teachers and researchers with an interest in Europe will find this volume to be a valuable work of reference and a source of new and stimulating ideas and perspectives on Europe. More broadly, the dictionary will appeal to ‘professionals of Europe’ eager to gain insights into their working environment as well as to readers interested in understanding Europe through its actors.

The condemnation of wartime sexual violence as a gross violation of human rights has received widespread support. While rape and other forms of sexual violence have attracted considerable local and international attention, this often excludes wartime sexual violence among women belonging to so-called ‘perpetrator’ war-torn nations. This book explores the silence surrounding women’s experiences of wartime sexual violence within academic, legal and public discourses. Olivera Simić argues that the international criminal law and feminist legal discourse on wartime sexual violence can construct a problematic victim hierarchy that excludes and misrecognises certain women’s experiences of sexual violence during and after armed conflict. The book focuses on the experiences of Bosnian Serb women, where the collapse of the former Yugoslavia led to brutal war and gross human rights violations throughout the 1990s. Two decades after the war, women in Bosnia and Herzegovina are still facing the legacies of the violence in the 1990s. Through this case Simić argues that while all women survivors of rape face problems of stigma, shame and lack of political visibility, their legal and symbolic status differ according to their ethno-national identity. Drawing on interviews with Bosnian Serb women survivors of rape in Bosnia and Herzegovina, feminist activists, local media, documentary and archival sources, the book examines ‘post-conflict justice’ as it is seen, lived and interpreted by women who belong to ‘perpetrator’ nations and will be of great interest and use to researchers, students and practitioners within post-conflict law and justice, international criminal law, security studies and gender studies.

This book analyzes how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) deal with general international law. In light of the concerns of various authors about the fragmentation of international law and the "human rightist" aspirations of human rights law, the question arises whether these human rights courts put the unity of general international law into danger. The main idea of this study is that the ECtHR and the IACtHR may, in principle, only "elaborate" and not "depart" from or "contradict" general international law. A departure is only acceptable if a clear lex specialis has been established for human rights law. The author researches whether or not the sometimes different case law of both human rights courts fits into this assumption. Almost all topics of general international law that have been dealt with by the ECtHR and IACtHR are analyzed, including: reservations * application of treaties * ratione temporis, ratione loci, and r

This book brings together feminist scholars to explore the directions and tensions in feminist engagement with various areas of international law.

Annotation Lo studies how human rights organizations and individual activists have sought to influence American courts on death penalty law and refugee policies. In doing so, she studies whether neutral legal rules have affected judges decision-making. She concludes that judicial attitude matters most in litigation since judges enjoy autonomous authority in adjudicating cases. Twin goals should dominate human rights activists agenda: to socialize U.S. judges to international human rights law through tools such as case briefs, amicus statements, and seminars and to extend this socialization to the executive and legislative departments, which, directly or indirectly, influence the courts.