Quality Control in Criminal Investigation


Book Description

Edited by Xabier Agirre Aranburu, Morten Bergsmo, Simon De Smet and Carsten Stahn, this 1,108-page book offers detailed analyses on how the investigation and preparation of fact-rich cases can be improved, both in national and international jurisdictions. Twenty-four chapters organized in five parts address, inter alia, evidence and analysis, systemic challenges in case-preparation, investigation plans as instruments of quality control, and judicial and prosecutorial participation in investigation and case-preparation. The authors include Antonio Angotti, Devasheesh Bais, Olympia Bekou, Gilbert Bitti, Leïla Bourguiba, Thijs B. Bouwknegt, Ewan Brown, Eleni Chaitidou, Cale Davis, Markus Eikel, Shreeyash Uday Lalit, Moa Lidén, Tor-Geir Myhrer, Trond Myklebust, Matthias Neuner, Christian Axboe Nielsen, Gilad Noam, Gavin Oxburgh, David Re, Alf Butenschøn Skre, Usha Tandon, William Webster and William H. Wiley, in addition to the four co-editors. There are also forewords by Fatou Bensouda and Manoj Kumar Sinha, and a prologue by Gregory S. Gordon. The book follows from a conference at the Indian Law Institute in New Delhi, and is the main outcome of the third leg of a research project of the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (CILRAP) known as the 'Quality Control Project'. Other books produced by the project are Quality Control in Fact-Finding (Second Edition, 2020) and Quality Control in Preliminary Examination: Volumes 1 and 2 (2018). Covering three distinct phases - documentation, preliminary examination and investigation - the volumes consider how the quality of each phase can be improved. Emphasis is placed on the nourishment of an individual mindset and institutional culture of quality control.







Proving International Crimes


Book Description

Proving International Crimes elucidates how international criminal tribunals have tackled the immense and complex task of proving international crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The challenges posed by the scale and scope of these crimes and the distance in time and space between their commission and their prosecution are well-known. Nevertheless, investigators, lawyers, scholars, and policy makers often look to the law and practice of international criminal tribunals to establish what standards need to be met in the collection, preservation, presentation, and analysis of evidence to prove international crimes. In offering a comprehensive account of the law and practice of evidence before international criminal courts and tribunals to date, as well as recommendations for future practice, this book aims to inform domestic, regional, and international accountability processes for crimes going forward. This book demonstrates that, owing to the flexibility built in to the legal and procedural frameworks of international criminal courts and tribunals, the law of international criminal evidence is often unpredictable and uncertain. To this end, McDermott argues for the development of a coherent epistemic framework driven by two guiding principles: rectitude of decision and the highest standards of fairness.




Prosecutorial Discretion at the International Criminal Court


Book Description

This timely book provides a comprehensive guide to, and rigorous analysis of, prosecutorial discretion at the International Criminal Court. This is the first ever study that takes the reader through all the key stages of the Proscecutor's decision-making process. Starting from preliminary examinations and the decision to investigate, the book also explores case selection processes, plea agreements, culminating in the question of how to end engagement in specific country situations. The book serves as a guide to the Rome Statute through the lens of the Prosecutor's activities. With its unique combination of legal theory and specific policy analysis, it addresses broader questions that will be relevant to other international and hybrid criminal courts and tribunals. The book will be of interest to students, practitioners of law, academics, and the wider public concerned with international law, criminal justice and international relations.




Model Rules of Professional Conduct


Book Description

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.




Quality Control in Fact-Finding


Book Description

This book discusses how fact-finding mechanisms for alleged violations of international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law can be improved. There has been a significant increase in the use of international(ised) and domestic fact-finding mechanisms since 1992, including by the United Nations human rights system, international commissions of inquiry, truth and reconciliation commissions, and NGO fact-finding. They are analysed and assessed in detail by 22 authors under the common theme 'Quality Control in Fact-Finding'. The authors include Richard J. Goldstone, Martin Scheinin, LIU Daqun, Charles Garraway, David Re, Simon De Smet, FAN Yuwen, Isabelle Lassée, WU Xiaodan, Dan Saxon, Christopher B. Mahony, Dov Jacobs, Catherine Harwood, Lyal S. Sunga, Wolfgang Kaleck, Carolijn Terwindt, Ilia Utmelidze and Marina Aksenova. This Second Edition includes new chapters by Geoffrey Robertson QC, Emma Irving and William H. Wiley, as well as a new foreword by Mads Andenæs. The book considers how the quality of every functional aspect of fact-finding can be improved, including work processes to identify, locate, obtain, verify, analyse, corroborate, summarise, synthesise, structure, organise, present and disseminate facts. Emphasis is placed on the nourishment of an individual mindset and institutional culture of quality control. This book concerns fact-work outside criminal justice systems. It is supplemented by Quality Control in Preliminary Examination: Volumes 1 and 2 and Quality Control in Criminal Investigation in the same Series.




An Introduction to the International Criminal Court


Book Description

This is the authoritative introduction to the International Criminal Court, fully updated in this sixth edition. The book covers the legal framework of the Court, the cases that it has heard and that are still to come, and the political debates surrounding its operation. It is written by one of the major authorities on the subject, in language accessible to non-specialists. The sixth edition brings legal references fully up to date in light of the Court's case law. Several trials have now been completed, with four convictions and a number of controversial acquittals. The book also discusses the situations that the Court is currently investigating, including Palestine, Georgia, Ukraine, Venezuela and the UK in Iraq. It also looks into the crisis with African states and the hostility of the United States to the institution.




Justice as Message


Book Description

This work is the first to examine the expressive and communicative functions of law in a comprehensive way in the field of atrocity crime. It shows that expression and communication are not only inherent parts of the punitive functions of international criminal justice, but are represented in a whole spectrum of practices.