Yvonne McDermott – författare

With the acceptance of international criminal procedure as a self-sustaining discipline and as the tribunals established to try the most serious crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda have completed or are beginning to wind up their activities, the time is ripe for a critical evaluation of these international criminal tribunals and their legacy. By examining the due process standards embraced by the five contemporary international criminaltribunals, the author draws conclusions about how the right to a fair trial should be interpreted in international criminal law.This volume addresses key conceptual questions on fairness, including: should international criminal tribunals set the highest standards of fairness, or is it sufficient for their practice to be ''just fair enough''? To whom does the right to a fair trial attach, and can actors such as the prosecution and victims be accurately said to benefit from that right? Does fairness require the full realization of a number of guarantees owed to the accused under the statutory frameworks of internationalcriminal tribunals, or should we instead be concerned with the fairness of the trial ''as a whole''? What is the interplay between domestic and international courts on questions of procedural fairness? What are the elements of fairness in international criminal proceedings? And what remedies areavailable for breaches of fair trial rights?Through an in-depth exploration of the right to a fair trial, the author concludes that international criminal tribunals have a role in setting the highest standards of due process protection in their procedures, and that in so doing, they can have a positive impact on domestic justice systems.

With the acceptance of international criminal procedure as a self-sustaining discipline and as the tribunals established to try the most serious crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda have completed or are beginning to wind up their activities, the time is ripe for a critical evaluation of these international criminal tribunals and their legacy. By examining the due process standards embraced by the five contemporary international criminaltribunals, the author draws conclusions about how the right to a fair trial should be interpreted in international criminal law.This volume addresses key conceptual questions on fairness, including: should international criminal tribunals set the highest standards of fairness, or is it sufficient for their practice to be ''just fair enough''? To whom does the right to a fair trial attach, and can actors such as the prosecution and victims be accurately said to benefit from that right? Does fairness require the full realization of a number of guarantees owed to the accused under the statutory frameworks of internationalcriminal tribunals, or should we instead be concerned with the fairness of the trial ''as a whole''? What is the interplay between domestic and international courts on questions of procedural fairness? What are the elements of fairness in international criminal proceedings? And what remedies areavailable for breaches of fair trial rights?Through an in-depth exploration of the right to a fair trial, the author concludes that international criminal tribunals have a role in setting the highest standards of due process protection in their procedures, and that in so doing, they can have a positive impact on domestic justice systems.

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.

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.

Judicial independence is increasingly under threat. The rise of populism risks undermining the separation of powers, with some politicians, media outlets and members of the public taking aim at judges, labelling them as part of the establishment and the elite, the 'enemies of the people'. Judicial Independence Under Threat seeks to situate these contemporary challenges to judicial independence in their proper legal, philosophical, political and historical contexts. It brings academic scholars from a variety of disciplines together with judges, politicians and legal professionals and asks what core shared values of our legal and political systems judicial independence seeks to protect, and how threats to that independence can be protected against. What can we learn from comparative, historical, political, philosophical, and legal insights on the separation of powers, and what means can we discover to prevent against challenges to the independence of judges in times of crisis?

With the acceptance of international criminal procedure as a self-sustaining discipline and as the tribunals established to try the most serious crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda have completed or are beginning to wind up their activities, the time is ripe for a critical evaluation of these international criminal tribunals and their legacy. By examining the due process standards embraced by the five contemporary international criminal tribunals, the author draws conclusions about how the right to a fair trial should be interpreted in international criminal law. This volume addresses key conceptual questions on fairness, including: should international criminal tribunals set the highest standards of fairness, or is it sufficient for their practice to be 'just fair enough'? To whom does the right to a fair trial attach, and can actors such as the prosecution and victims be accurately said to benefit from that right? Does fairness require the full realization of a number of guarantees owed to the accused under the statutory frameworks of international criminal tribunals, or should we instead be concerned with the fairness of the trial 'as a whole'? What is the interplay between domestic and international courts on questions of procedural fairness? What are the elements of fairness in international criminal proceedings? And what remedies are available for breaches of fair trial rights?Through an in-depth exploration of the right to a fair trial, the author concludes that international criminal tribunals have a role in setting the highest standards of due process protection in their procedures, and that in so doing, they can have a positive impact on domestic justice systems.

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.

This book provides a timely critical overview of both the health and trajectory of international criminal law's continuing evolution. It represents a modest collective effort to introduce an element of legal realism or critical legal studies into the academic discourse.

The Challenge of Human Rights takes a detailed and exploratory approach to topics across the field of human rights, and seeks to map a path for future research and policy development. It examines contemporary approaches to established rights, such as the right to peace and the protection against double jeopardy, while also revisiting overlooked or forgotten rights and concepts such as slavery, apartheid and the right to resist, determining the optimal place for those rights in today's world. The contributing authors outline lacunae in human rights law where rights could be established, from voting rights for under-18s to rights for the dead to cultural and intellectual property rights, and also apply completely new approaches to questions that have troubled human rights advocates for decades. This innovative book will be essential reading for researchers and practitioners of human rights law, political scientists, historians, and others who have a general interest in the future trajectory of human rights. Contributors: K. Anderson, M.M. Carpenter, J. Castellino, J. Curtis, A. Daly, S. Darcy, P. Fitzmaurice, D. Keane, Y. McDermott, N. McGeehan, D. McGreal, R. Murphy, S. Murphy, M. Ni Chriochain, E. O'Brien, J. Reynolds, L.N. Sadat, W.A. Schabas

The Challenge of Human Rights takes a detailed and exploratory approach to topics across the field of human rights, and seeks to map a path for future research and policy development.

It examines contemporary approaches to established rights, such as the right to peace and the protection against double jeopardy, while also revisiting overlooked or forgotten rights and concepts such as slavery, apartheid and the right to resist, determining the optimal place for those rights in today''s world. The contributing authors outline lacunae in human rights law where rights could be established, from voting rights for under-18s to rights for the dead to cultural and intellectual property rights, and also apply completely new approaches to questions that have troubled human rights advocates for decades.

This innovative book will be essential reading for researchers and practitioners of human rights law, political scientists, historians, and others who have a general interest in the future trajectory of human rights.

Contributors: K. Anderson, M.M. Carpenter, J. Castellino, J. Curtis, A. Daly, S. Darcy, P. Fitzmaurice, D. Keane, Y. McDermott, N. McGeehan, D. McGreal, R. Murphy, S. Murphy, M. Ni Chriochain, E. O''Brien, J. Reynolds, L.N. Sadat, W.A. Schabas

International criminal law is at a crucial point in its history and development, and the time is right for practitioners, academics and students to take stock of the lessons learnt from the past fifteen years, as the international community moves towards an increasingly uni-polar international criminal legal order, with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the helm. This unique Research Companion takes a critical approach to a wide variety of theoretical, practical, legal and policy issues surrounding and underpinning the operation of international criminal law as applied by international criminal tribunals. The book is divided into four main parts. The first part analyses international crimes and modes of liability, with a view to identifying areas which have been inconsistently or misguidedly interpreted, overlooked to date or are likely to be increasingly significant in future. The second part examines international criminal processes and procedures, and here the authors discuss issues such as victim participation and the rights of the accused. The third part is a discussion of complementarity and sentencing, while the final part of the book looks at international criminal justice in context. The authors raise issues which are likely to provide the most significant challenges and most promising opportunities for the continuing development of this body of law. As international criminal law becomes more established as a distinct discipline, it becomes imperative for international criminal scholarship to provide a degree of critical analysis, both of individual legal issues and of the international criminal project as a whole. This book represents an important collective effort to introduce an element of legal realism or critical legal studies into the academic discourse.

International criminal law is at a crucial point in its history and development, and the time is right for practitioners, academics and students to take stock of the lessons learnt from the past fifteen years, as the international community moves towards an increasingly uni-polar international criminal legal order, with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the helm. This unique Research Companion takes a critical approach to a wide variety of theoretical, practical, legal and policy issues surrounding and underpinning the operation of international criminal law as applied by international criminal tribunals. The book is divided into four main parts. The first part analyses international crimes and modes of liability, with a view to identifying areas which have been inconsistently or misguidedly interpreted, overlooked to date or are likely to be increasingly significant in future. The second part examines international criminal processes and procedures, and here the authors discuss issues such as victim participation and the rights of the accused. The third part is a discussion of complementarity and sentencing, while the final part of the book looks at international criminal justice in context. The authors raise issues which are likely to provide the most significant challenges and most promising opportunities for the continuing development of this body of law. As international criminal law becomes more established as a distinct discipline, it becomes imperative for international criminal scholarship to provide a degree of critical analysis, both of individual legal issues and of the international criminal project as a whole. This book represents an important collective effort to introduce an element of legal realism or critical legal studies into the academic discourse.