Article

It is all in the process : reflections on the relation between international criminal trials and international humanitarian law

Frederik Harhoff

• Nordic journal of international law, Vol. 78, no. 4, 2009, p. 469-480

English

While much attention has been drawn all along to the substantial contribution by the jurisprudence of the international criminal tribunals to the development of international humanitarian law, the criminal legal procedural aspect of the tribunals' jurisprudence has been less prominent. The present article seeks to highlight the material importance of this much neglected aspect of the tribunal's jurisprudence. It illustrates the delicate interplay between the common law system and the civil law system and demonstrates how the latter is better suited to control very complex trials. It also explains why international criminal trials are inherently lengthier than criminal trials in domestic courts. Ultimately, the author argues, it is not sufficient to just agree on the crimes and how to define them; the real challenge lies in how you apply the evidence to these definitions.

• International humanitarian law : celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions / guest ed.: Rikke Ishoj... [et al.]