From Pinochet to Rumsfeld: Universal Jurisdiction in Europe 1998-2008

This Essay provides a survey of more than fifty universal jurisdiction proceedings in European courts and illustrates that universal jurisdiction is no longer a seldom-used theoretical concept, but a widespread practice. However, it is a practice that faces a number legal and practical obstacles identified here. Similar difficulties are encountered in other mechanisms used to combat impunity, including territorial and personality jurisdiction, state accountability at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and civil litigation in the United States. The Essay then begins an evaluation of the last ten years of universal jurisdiction practice and proposes a transnational, interdisciplinary, and strategic legal approach for punishing gross human rights violations, considering universal jurisdiction as one legal tool amongst others

Socializing Evidence

Conference at the House of World Cultures [Haus der Kulturen der Welt], accompanying the exhibition Investigative Commons. The rise of counterfactual politics on- and off-line, presents societies with a dilemma. One option is to buttress the institutional basis of factual authority by supporting the existing judiciary, media, universities and cultural venues. Another approach, presented here, is more risky: to seize the contemporary moment of institutional crisis as an opportunity for a radical transformation of the way facts are produced and disseminated. This approach responds to the current skepticism towards institutional pronouncements with a vital form of collective truth-production; one that is both diffused and diverse, based on establishing an expanded community of practice that incorporates aesthetic and scientific sensibilities. Organized by one such community of practice, the Investigative Commons, this event brings together investigators, lawyers, activists, artists, architects and academics. They will discuss the ways in which new investigative practices have the potential to challenge different forums for the presentations of facts and articulation of claims: the mainstream media brought into crisis by the growth of ‘open source’ and 'citizen’ journalism; museums, which have been turned into sites of political contestation; and the courts where new kind of evidence, citizen-produced and crowd-verified, challenges traditional legal process

Investigative Commons

Exhibition at the House of World Cultures [Haus der Kulturen der Welt], Berlin, Germany. This exhibition showcases a new model for collaborative truth-production and investigative aesthetics, bringing together open source investigation, “counter-forensics” and strategic human rights litigation, Combining the knowledge of survivors of violence and dispossession with methods from journalism, law, activism and arts, it presents casework that confronts urgent contemporary issues: racist policing and border regimes, cyber-surveillance, environmental violence, the ongoing violence of colonialism and the complicity of institutions in them

From Pinochet to Rumsfeld: Universal Jurisdiction in Europe 1998-2008

This Essay provides a survey of more than fifty universal jurisdiction proceedings in European courts and illustrates that universal jurisdiction is no longer a seldom-used theoretical concept, but a widespread practice. However, it is a practice that faces a number legal and practical obstacles identified here. Similar difficulties are encountered in other mechanisms used to combat impunity, including territorial and personality jurisdiction, state accountability at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and civil litigation in the United States. The Essay then begins an evaluation of the last ten years of universal jurisdiction practice and proposes a transnational, interdisciplinary, and strategic legal approach for punishing gross human rights violations, considering universal jurisdiction as one legal tool amongst others

Corona Constitutional #26: Das BND-Urteil

Karlsruhe hat entschieden: Auch im Ausland müssen sich deutsche Behörden an Grundrechte halten, auch ausländische Staatsbürger dürfen nicht uneingeschränkt überwacht werden. Warum die Zivilgesellschaft aufatmen, sich aber auf keinen Fall zurücklehnen darf, bespricht Alexander Melzer im heutigen Podcast mit WOLFGANG KALECK, Generalsekretär des European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR).</p

Discussion

Discussion of the workshop Truth, Freedom, and the Academy, ICI Berlin, 27 September 2019, video recording, mp4, 56:56 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e190927_3

Beihilfe - mittelbare Verantwortung in einer verflochtenen Welt

Rechtliche Verantwortung ist in einer verstrickten Weltgesellschaft zunehmend umstritten. Insbesondere das Verhältnis von mittelbarer und unmittelbarer Verursachung und daraus folgender Verantwortung scheint in Frage zu stehen, wo die Ermöglichung schädigender Handlungen zentral für deren Geschehen ist, gleichzeitig aber in diffus verteilten aggregierten Einzelhandlungen nicht eindeutig zuzuordnen ist. In unterschiedlichen Rechtsgebieten zeigen sich unterschiedliche Interpretationen von ermöglichendem Handeln, die Willen, bzw. Intention, und Wissen für die Zurechnung mittelbarer Verantwortung unterschiedlich gewichten. Dies deutet auf die Brüchigkeit unserer gegenwärtigen Begriffe unmittelbarer und mittelbarer Verantwortung hin, und wirft die Frage auf, wie diese in einer zunehmend auch reflexiv verflochtenen Weltgesellschaft neu verhandelt werden