Hybrid Tribunals and the Composition of the Court: In Search of Sociological Legitimacy

Sociological legitimacy is a critical yet undertheorized element of a successful international criminal tribunal. This Article examines the link between sociological legitimacy and the composition of hybrid courts by analyzing the practice of five international criminal tribunals: the ICC, ICTY, ICTR, SCSL, and the ECCC. It finds that the presence of local judges on international criminal courts offers a firmer normative basis for enhancing their legitimacy among the local community. However, the Article also finds that despite impressive scholarly efforts to demystify the “homogenous” international community, international judges are not sufficiently particularized. The solution I offer is both principled and pragmatic. The appointment of international judges should prioritize individuals from regional states (provided the states were not involved in the conflict), those of the same legal tradition, and individuals who speak a language of the affected state. This solution pays greater respect to national sovereignty and enhances the prospect that judges sensitive to local customs will be involved, increasing the likelihood that the court will be regarded as legitimate. The court’s sociological legitimacy, in turn, heightens the court’s prospect of success

Appointing Attorneys-General to the High Court: a case for reform

Throughout 2016, Attorney-General George Brandis QC repeatedly denied he intended to leave the Federal Parliament and take up a position on the High Court of Australia. In this article we explore the experiences of the two most recent politicians-cum-High Court Justices: Garfield Barwick and Lionel Murphy; and note that Australia’s current judicial appointment process would have permitted Brandis to make a similar transition. We argue that this process should be revamped to enhance transparency and accountability in the appointments process, to the benefit of our judicial system and its public perception

Unraveling the International Law of Colonialism: Lessons From Australia and the United States

In the 1823 decision of Johnson v. M’Intosh, Chief Justice John Marshall formulated the international law of colonialism. Known as the Doctrine of Discovery, Marshall’s opinion drew on the practices of European nations during the Age of Exploration to legitimize European acquisition of territory owned and occupied by Indigenous peoples. Two centuries later, Johnson—and the international law of colonialism—remains good law throughout the world. In this Article we examine how the Doctrine of Discovery was adapted and applied in Australia and the United States. As Indigenous peoples continue to press for a re-examination of their relationships with governments, we also consider whether and how the international law of colonialism has been mitigated or unraveled in these two countries. While we find that the Doctrine lingers, close examination provides several important lessons for all Indigenous nations and governments burdened by colonization

Indigenous aspirations and democratic design: structural reform in Australia

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples claim a distinctive relationship with the Australian state based on their pre-colonial status as self-governing sovereign communities. This relationship is not reflected in Australia’s constitutional and political framework, which inhibits Indigenous Australians’ ability to have their distinct interests considered in the processes of government. Can the Australian state be restructured to rectify this failing and empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? This thesis answers this question in two parts. By examining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ nuanced and complex political thought, the thesis first explores the multivocal expressions of Indigenous aspirations for structural reform and democratic design. Fundamental themes that emerge from this exploration are then articulated into a set of criteria—voices, power, ownership, and integrity—that each capture a critical dimension of Indigenous goals in a manner legible to Australia’s system of governance. This produces a metric to assess institutional mechanisms and processes designed to empower Indigenous peoples to be heard in the processes of government. In the second part of the thesis, these criteria are applied to two key case studies: the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), and the Swedish Sámediggi. The thesis concludes by presenting a model for structural reform in Australia that meets Indigenous aspirations for democratic design

An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament: what can Australia learn from other countries?

This is an edited version of a presentation to the Australian Institute for International Affairs on 16 May 2023. The authors explain the origins of the proposal for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Australian Parliament and why the Voice should be enshrined in the Australian Constitution. They also compare how other countries ensure that Indigenous peoples’ interests are properly considered in the processes of government. They conclude by noting that the proposed Voice is a modest request by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to be seen in the Constitution and heard in the democratic life of Australia

Raloxifene Enhances Material-Level Mechanical Properties of Femoral Cortical and Trabecular Bone

We have previously documented that raloxifene enhances the mechanical properties of dog vertebrae independent of changes in bone mass, suggesting a positive effect of raloxifene on material-level mechanical properties. The goal of this study was to determine the separate effects of raloxifene on the material-level mechanical properties of trabecular and cortical bone from the femur of beagle dogs. Skeletally mature female beagles (n = 12 per group) were treated daily for 1 yr with oral doses of vehicle or raloxifene (0.50 mg/kg d). Trabecular bone mechanical properties were measured at the femoral neck using reduced platen compression, a method that allows the trabecular bone to be tested without coring specimens. Cortical bone properties were assessed on prismatic beam specimens machined from the femoral diaphysis using both monotonic and dynamic (cyclic relaxation) four-point bending tests. Trabecular bone from raloxifene-treated animals had significantly higher ultimate stress (+130%), modulus (+89%), and toughness (+152%) compared with vehicle-treated animals. Cortical bone from raloxifene-treated animals had significantly greater toughness (+62%) compared with vehicle, primarily as a function of increased postyield displacement (+100%). There was no significant difference between groups in the percentage of stiffness loss during cortical bone cyclic relaxation tests. These results are consistent with previous data from the vertebrae of these same animals, showing raloxifene has positive effects on biomechanical properties independent of changes in bone volume/density. This may help explain how raloxifene reduces osteoporotic fractures despite modest changes in bone mass.This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants AR047838 and AR007581 and a research grant from Lilly Research Laboratories. This investigation used an animal facility constructed with support from Research Facilities Improvement Program Grant Number C06 RR10601-01 from the National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health. Disclosure Summary: M.R.A. has research contracts from Eli Lilly and the Alliance for Better Bone Health. D.B.B. has research contracts from Eli Lilly, the Alliance for Better Bone Health, and Amgen; owns stock in Amgen, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Glaxo SmithKline; and is a speaker/consultant for Merck, Eli Lilly, the Alliance for Better Bone Health, and Amgen. A.S.K. and M.C.K. have a family member employed by Eli Lilly. H.A.H. and W.A.H. have nothing to declare

The eccentricity distribution of compact binaries

The current gravitational wave detectors have reached their operational sensitivity and are nearing detection of compact object binaries. In the coming years, we expect that the Advanced LIGO/VIRGO will start taking data. At the same time, there are plans for third generation ground-based detectors such as the Einstein Telescope, and space detectors such as DECIGO. We discuss the eccentricity distribution of inspiral compact object binaries during they inspiral phase. We analyze the expected distributions of eccentricities at three frequencies that are characteristic of three future detectors: Advanced LIGO/VIRGO (30 Hz), Einstein Telescope (3 Hz), and DECIGO (0.3 Hz). We use the StarTrack binary population code to investigate the properties of the population of compact binaries in formation. We evolve their orbits until the point that they enter a given detector sensitivity window and analyze the eccentricity distribution at that time. We find that the eccentricities of BH-BH and BH-NS binaries are quite small when entering the Advanced LIGO/VIRGO detector window for all considered models of binary evolution. Even in the case of the DECIGO detector, the typical eccentricities of BH-BH binaries are below 10^{-4}, and the BH-NS eccentricities are smaller than 10^{-3}. Some fraction of NS-NS binaries may have significant eccentricities. Within the range of considered models, we found that a fraction of between 0.2% and 2% NS-NS binaries will have an eccentricity above 0.01 for the Advanced LIGO/VIRGO detectors. For the ET detector, this fraction is between 0.4% and 4%, and for the DECIGO detector it lies between 2% and 27%.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, accepted by A&

Diamonds, gold and crime displacement: Hatton Garden, and the evolution of organised crime in the UK

The 2015 Hatton Garden Heist was described as the ‘largest burglary in English legal history’. However, the global attention that this spectacular crime attracted to ‘The Garden’ tended to concentrate upon the value of the stolen goods and the vintage of the burglars. What has been ignored is how the burglary shone a spotlight into Hatton Garden itself, as an area with a unique ‘upperworld’ commercial profile and skills cluster that we identify as an incubator and facilitator for organised crime. The Garden is the UK’s foremost jewellery production and retail centre and this paper seeks to explore how Hatton Garden’s businesses integrated with a fluid criminal population to transition, through hosting lucrative (and bureaucratically complex) VAT gold frauds from 1980 to the early 1990s, to become a major base for sophisticated acquisitive criminal activities. Based on extensive interviews over a thirty year period, evidence from a personal research archive and public records, this paper details a cultural community with a unique criminal profile due to the particularities of its geographical location, ethnic composition, trading culture, skills base and international connections. The processes and structures that facilitate criminal markets are largely under-researched (Antonopoulos et al. 2015: 11), and this paper considers how elements of Hatton Garden’s ‘upperworld’ businesses integrated with project criminals, displaced by policing strategies, to effect this transition