A Call for the End of Impunity for Multinational Corporations

In 2002, the first permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) was established. Based on the experience of the International Military Tribunal (the so-called Nuremberg Trials), the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the so-called Tokyo Trials), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the new court is determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to contribute to the prevention of such crimes. Too often in the past the worst perpetrators of the worst crimes were able to hide behind the shield of impunity because of a lack of national prosecutions. The massacres in the former Republic of Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the early nineties were a painful reminder that the hope of never again! after WWII has not been fulfilled. On the contrary, killings, mutilations, rapes, torture, and other crimes keep being committed against and by civilians (and unspeakably also against and by children) on the greatest scale. Appallingly, among the major key players in facilitating and even motivating some of these atrocities are indeed business entities. Although in many cases multinational corporations or their subsidiaries are directly involved in human rights violations of the worst kind, neither the host nor the home country show any interest in investigating against them. A joint report by Fafo and the International Peace Academy stated that [t]here is a climate of impunity surrounding economic activities that promote or sustain conflict and human rights abuse. In fact, these business entities are even outside the jurisdiction of the ICC. This Essay argues that currently international and national law regimes are insufficient in tackling corporate human rights violations and that the ICC\u27s jurisdiction should be extended to legal persons to end the de facto impunity of multinational corporations

No Air to Breathe: Victims of Sex Slavery in the U.K.

Today slavery is recognised as a heinous violation of numerous human rights and a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute. It is prohibited under a number of international law instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Nevertheless, 250 years after the famous decision in Somerset v. Stewart, when Lord Mansfield was reported to have announced that the air of England was too pure for slaves to breathe, the U.K. is still a country of destination for thousands of persons who are trafficked for the purpose of forced labour in agriculture and sweatshop industries, involuntary domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation. An increasing number of them are women and children, who are sold and re-sold, kept imprisoned, raped, beaten, humiliated, and psychologically abused in the billion-dollar industry of sexual exploitation

Goodies and baddies: the presentation of German police and criminals in east and west television drama

Criminal Justice does not only consist of identifying and sentencing unwanted and thus outlawed behaviour but also of the perception of members of society and hence its presentation in public. This paper analyses the one police drama that has been broadcast in the former GDR since 1971, called “Polizeiruf 110”. I want to present this East German police television programme, showing how the state used the entertainment media for its educational purposes, and reveal in what ways it tried to promote particular perspectives about crime, police, society and the state. At the same time as looking at the official presentation of crime and law enforcement it analyses as well the voice of the artists and filmmakers involved regarding their presentation of society. Comparing with the data that we have today about criminal justice in the former GDR I want to show how valuable culture, and in this case TV programmes are as a historical source for the analysis and evaluation of a criminal justice system

Regionalisation of the International Criminal Court

One of the basic justifications for establishing a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) is the understanding that in case of gross human rights violations not only the affected peoples but rather humanity itself is the victim of these crimes. This notion requires that atrocities on this scale must be addressed by a truly international rather than regional criminal law defining the elements of the commission of these crimes and setting a universal standard of procedure. Acknowledging the practical disadvantages of a centralised court in The Hague this paper highlights the dangers that regionalisation means for the development of a corpus of international criminal law proper. Many of the weaknesses of the Rome Statute are based on the fact that the negotiating States needed to find compromises reflecting all major law families as well as encouraging enough signatories to accept the court's jurisdiction. Thus, many of the most sensitive questions are not yet solved and are unlikely to be clarified in sufficient detail by the Review Conference. Although the Rome Statute allows for only very limited judicial discretion these problems will need to be rectified by judicial decision making on a case to case basis. The author argues that the establishment of regional criminal courts will undermine the development of a fully fledged body of international criminal law by diverting cases from the ICC, developing different families of multinational law and furthermore fragmentising case development in this area of law. The ICC needs to develop a justice system that accommodates the needs of regions rather than regionalisation weakening the young court and thereby international criminal law in general

Plea bargaining in international criminal justice - can the International Criminal Court afford to avoid trials?

This article discusses the question as to whether plea bargaining should be introduced in the International Criminal Court (ICC). It argues that although the different features and functions of international criminal law make practices such as plea arrangements ambiguous, there are circumstances in which this practice can make a valuable contribution. Plea bargaining should, however, be used only under very restrictive circumstances and not as a mere tool of efficiency. The first section discusses to what extent plea bargaining might support or undermine the special functions of the ICC. The second section makes suggestions as to when plea bargaining should be used at the Court

A thing called prisoner

This paper is a response to J.C. Oleson’s article “The Punitive Coma” , which suggests that prisoners should be put into a narcotic coma in order to abolish prison violence and make imprisonment less expensive and more efficient. I argue that this treatment is an unusual and cruel punishment that not only violates most of the constitutional rights of prisoners but most of all deprives them of their human dignity. Furthermore, it would have considerable negative impacts on the Criminal Justice system and broader society and therefore must never be al-lowed to be introduced

No air to breathe: victims of sex slavery in the U.K.

Today slavery is recognised as a heinous violation of numerous human rights and a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute. It is prohibited under a number of international law instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Nevertheless, 250 years after the famous decision in Somerset v. Stewart, when Lord Mansfield was reported to have announced that the air of England was "too pure for slaves to breathe," the U.K. is still a country of destination for thousands of persons who are trafficked for the purpose of forced labour in agriculture and sweatshop industries, involuntary domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation. An increasing number of them are women and children, who are sold and re-sold, kept imprisoned, raped, beaten, humiliated, and psychologically abused in the billion-dollar industry of sexual exploitation

Number 2 -Page 1 JCJR ™ The Journal of Criminal Justice Research Research Article -Rauxloh Copyright

ABSTRACT This article discusses the question as to whether plea bargaining should be introduced in the International Criminal Court (ICC). It argues that although the different features and functions of international criminal law make practices such as plea arrangements ambiguous, there are circumstances in which this practice can make a valuable contribution. Plea bargaining should, however, be used only under very restrictive circumstances and not as a mere tool of efficiency. The first section discusses to what extent plea bargaining might support or undermine the special functions of the ICC. The second section makes suggestions as to when plea bargaining should be used at the Court