Subscription preferences
GreshamCollege
International Law - Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
-
1
International Criminal Tribunals - Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
by GreshamCollege 1,839 views
International Criminal Tribunals: Experiments? Works in progress? Institutions that are here for good, or maybe not?
In the last twenty years several international courts have been established to try crimes committed in armed conflicts. Public expectation of what these courts may achieve is high; but are the courts living up to that expectation? Is the public expectation realistic and part of a liberal tradition; may it be seen as 'judicial romantic', according to courts capabilities they can never have? Are the courts always bound to be tainted by political influence that makes it probable they will ultimately fail?
What sense can be made of the permanent International Criminal Court - the ICC - when Russia, China and the USA decline to accept its jurisdiction for their own citizens but can, as permanent members of the Security Council of the UN, refer individuals from other non-member states to the ICC for trial? And would it matter if the ICC failed?
Has enough already been done to chart a way ahead that will allow the law a proper role in the service of countries, or communities in countries, at war? In any event, are war crimes trials the best partner of politics in the search for peace? Are there times when it may be better to let history go in the interests of a better safer future?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/international-criminal-tribunals
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There is currently over 1,300 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gresham-College/14011689941 -
2
The End of Slobodan Milošević - Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
by GreshamCollege 6,703 views
Slobodan Milošević died a few months before the end of his trial. There were no closing arguments and there was no judgment by the judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia -- the ICTY.
Sir Geoffrey Nice had been preparing closing arguments as the case proceeded and will explain what some of them were. Would those arguments have suggested Milošević was a deranged political dictator or merely a politician seduced by events to make bad -- criminal -- decisions? How should a prosecution craft its arguments about a single individual on trial for events that happened in a grave conflict without running the risk of 'over-prosecution'? How can four years of a trial focused on one individual avoid distortion of the complex political, military and historical realities which made mass atrocities possible?
Had Milošević's case concluded, would arguments of the Prosecution and judgments of the court have depicted a man so different from how we see ourselves and how we see 'ordinary' political leaders that the trial would have achieved little beyond achieving some retribution, some deterrence and bringing some resolution for survivors and bereaved? Or might the trial have been seen as a warning for those other 'ordinary' political leaders of how easy it is for political power to lead astray and corrupt those who might, in other circumstances, have ended their lives honourably -- all showing how valuable may be the mechanisms -- of democracy or otherwise -- that allow us to restrain bad leaders before they get worse.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-end-of-slobodan-milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There is currently nearly 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gresham-College/14011689941 -
3
Africa and the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) - Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
by GreshamCollege 1,808 views
The permanent International criminal Court (ICC) was long in planning and finally came into existence after the ad hoc Yugoslavia and Rwanda Tribunals (the ICTY and the ICTR) were seen to have had some success.
However, problems facing the permanent court that involves itself in continuing conflicts have been seen to be different from those of the ad hoc tribunals that deal with conflicts that had been largely concluded when the tribunals first sat. African countries whose citizens have been brought before the ICC complain of unfairness and bias and that the ICC has become a court for Africa, nowhere else. May they be right?
Has the court dealt evenly with different countries or has it shown itself to be vulnerable to political influences? When the ICC becomes involved in continuing conflicts - as it has done in Africa -- does it inevitably become involved in the politics of regime change and even in the conflicts themselves? Does the tension between the universal jurisdiction claimed by international criminal courts and the immunity of heads of state from pursuit in courts help or harm when the tension leads to some heads of state remaining in office simply to maintain their immunity from pursuit?
Sir Geoffrey Nice's involvement in the Sudan, Kenya and Libya cases may provide insight and indicate how a venture some think doomed could yet be saved.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-permanent-international-criminal-court-%E2%80%93-the-icc-and-africa
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There is currently nearly 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gresham-College/14011689941 -
4
Legal Process as a Tool to Rewrite History: Law, Politics and History - Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
by GreshamCollege 521 views
Trials at the ICTY concerned political violence and criminality that resulted from disintegration of a federation from which seven new successors states were formed. That process has been defined as a 'clash of state projects', where violence happened in areas claimed by two or more parties, or an aspiring state. The war crimes trials at the ICTY that resulted from overlapping territorial claims in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo produced a huge record of trial evidence. Problems in the very small state of Kosovo may be seen as the beginning of the violent process of disintegration, now known loosely as the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The conflict in Kosovo of 1998-9 may be seen as the end of those wars. Kosovo now seeks global recognition as an independent state but faces opposition both as to its international legal entitlements and as to how its history in the conflict should be viewed.
Conflicts in the small state of Bosnia may be seen as the heart of the 1990's Balkan wars. Bosnia's complex constitution and uncertain political equilibrium have left it with an insecure future. ICTY trials had several objectives, including bringing retribution and achieving deterrence but they never sought to write history and those who would seek historical truth in the trial record might be disappointed; every trial record produces at least two competing narratives, a Prosecution narrative and a Defence narrative or narratives, neither / none of which may be accurate. Yet outside the courtroom, the trial record will be used - or abused - for shaping the collective memory of the peoples and nations involved and for providing an overall narrative of the wars themselves.
The struggle for the interpretation of historical events through the trial record might be as important in long run as the determination of guilt or innocence of the individuals tried.
Kosovo and Bosnia both face a former foe -- Serbia - which might like to leave a 'historical record' that suggests moral equivalence between Serbia and Kosovo and between Serbia and Bosnia. The ICTY's policy of prosecuting representatives of all states /entities involved in the wars, may have contributed, some argue, to a concept of 'proportionality of criminal responsibility' that may assist Serbia in achieving this goal. In any event, Serbia may have shown itself skilful in the use of the court system and of the court record to write or re-write narratives of the conflicts in Kosovo and Bosnia? If it has, how can Kosovo and Bosnia fight back and write their own -- or at least better - narratives?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/legal-process-as-a-tool-to-rewrite-history-law-politics-and-history
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently nearly 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gresham-College/14011689941 -
5
State Involvement in War Crimes Trials - Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
by GreshamCollege 453 views
International war crimes courts deal only with the responsibility of individuals for crimes they committed. In order to avoid over-simplification of understanding what may have happened by the necessary concentration on individual criminal responsibility, it is vital not to overlook collective and state criminal responsibility; but state responsibility can only be dealt formally with at a different court, the International Court of Justice. Has this allowed states to escape attention that should have been paid to their responsibility -- as states -- for conflicts, a responsibility different in kind from the responsibility of their leaders?
All war crimes trials rely on cooperation with states, often the very ones which were involved in the relevant war, for production of valuable documents from state archives and to facilitate access to witnesses. States will be obligated by membership of the UN to cooperate while at the same time wanting or needing to obscure information that would make public the involvement of the state in the commission of crimes and mass atrocities.
What does the evidence in the Milošević trial and in other ICTY trials tell us about the responsibility of states, and not just of the states involved in conflicts? What does it tell us about the vulnerability of trials such as Milošević's to state interests that may run counter to open, forensic exploration of complex histories?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/state-involvement-in-war-crimes-trials
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently nearly 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gresham-College/14011689941 -
6
Regulation at Home, but not Abroad - Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
by GreshamCollege 242 views
In December 2012 Sir Geoffrey Nice finished four years as Vice Chair of the Bar Standards Board, the body that regulates barristers. After forty years in practice as a barrister, that included seven years working as an employed barrister in the UN, he will describe the differences between practice in a regulated legal community and practice in the UN system that operates with little effective regulation apart from what national systems impose on individual prosecution and defence lawyers. He will also review what he learnt as a regulator from looking critically at the Bar of England and Wales. The Bar of England and Wales and the country's legal system as a whole proudly assert that they are the best in the world. Are these claims justified? If so, why was legislation thought to be necessary to regulate them more closely, and was that legislation wise?
Can advantages that may exist in a national legal system -- such as that of England and Wales -- be introduced into international systems where lawyers from many countries and with different legal cultural backgrounds work together?
The transcript and downloadable versions of all of the lectures are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/regulation-at-home-but-not-abroad
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There is currently nearly 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GreshamCollege
