Transnational Trials as Transitional Justice: Lessons from the Trial of Two Rwandan Nuns in Belgium

More than a decade after the landmark trial of two Rwandan nuns for their role in the 1994 genocide, important lessons from the proceedings have yet to be fully explored. While scholars have vigorously debated the merits of international tribunals, hybrid courts, and local justice, comparatively little attention has focused on transnational trials—when national courts, typically in Europe and North America, exercise jurisdiction over foreign persons for crimes allegedly committed in foreign countries. Drawing on evidence collected in Belgium and Rwanda, including interviews, trial transcripts, and public opinion data, this Article uses the trial of the two Rwandan nuns to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of transnational trials. The story of Srs. Gertrude and Kizito provides an example of how Belgium’s exercise of jurisdiction prevented two accused génocidaires from escaping the law’s reach. But their story also reveals the challenges associated with conducting a highly sensitive trial in a culturally and geographically distant land. Defense attorneys for the nuns argue that Belgian jurors were ill-equipped to sort truth from fiction because of their lack of familiarity with Rwandan culture. The Belgian government’s reluctance to grant a key witness a visa to testify at trial deprived the jury of the opportunity to hear and assess his testimony. Furthermore, public opinion data reveals that the trial failed to capture the attention of the Rwandan people, perhaps detracting from the trial’s capacity to promote norm penetration and reconciliation. The trial also implicitly privileged Belgian legal values, like due process and relatively light sentences, over Rwanda’s preference for harsher punishments. Before fully embracing universal jurisdiction and transnational trials, policymakers must carefully consider the goals they aim to achieve by prosecuting foreign citizens for crimes committed abroad

Momentum-Resolved Ultrafast Electron Dynamics in Superconducting Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta

The non-equilibrium state of the high-Tc superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta and its ultrafast dynamics have been investigated by femtosecond time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy well below the critical temperature. We probe optically excited quasiparticles at different electron momenta along the Fermi surface and detect metastable quasiparticles near the antinode. Their decay through e-e scattering is blocked by a phase space restricted to the nodal region. The lack of momentum dependence in the decay rates is in agreement with relaxation dominated by Cooper pair recombination in a boson bottleneck limit

Warm HCN, C2H2, and CO in the disk of GV Tau

We present the first high-resolution, ground-based observations of HCN and C2H2 toward the T Tauri binary star system GV Tau. We detected strong absorption due to HCN nu_3 and weak C2H2 (nu_3 and nu_2 + (nu_4 + nu_5)^0_+) absorption toward the primary (GV Tau S) but not the infrared companion. We also report CO column densities and rotational temperatures, and present abundances relative to CO of HCN/CO ~0.6% and C2H2/CO ~1.2% and an upper limit for CH4/CO < 0.37% toward GV Tau S. Neither HCN nor C2H2 were detected toward the infrared companion and results suggest that abundances may differ between the two sources.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Ap

Electron-phonon coupling in 122 Fe pnictides analyzed by femtosecond time-resolved photoemission

Based on results from femtosecond time-resolved photoemission, we compare three different methods for determination of the electron-phonon coupling constant {\lambda} in Eu and Ba-based 122 FeAs compounds. We find good agreement between all three methods, which reveal a small {\lambda} < 0.2. This makes simple electron-phonon mediated superconductivity unlikely in these compounds.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Ultrafast dynamics of occupied quantum well states in Pb/Si(111)

We investigate the ultrafast electron dynamics of occupied quantum well states (QWSs) in Pb/Si(111) with time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We find an ultrafast increase in binding energy of the QWSs driven by the optical excitation, while the electronic system is in a non-equilibrium state. We explain this transient energetic stabilization in the photoexcited state by an ultrafast modification of the Fermi level pinning, triggered by charge transfer across the Pb/Si interface. In addition, we observe the excitation of a coherent surface phonon mode at a frequency of ~2 THz, which modulates the QWS binding energy

Momentum dependent ultrafast electron dynamics in antiferromagnetic EuFe2As2

Employing the momentum-sensitivity of time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy we demonstrate the analysis of ultrafast single- and many-particle dynamics in antiferromagnetic EuFe2As2. Their separation is based on a temperature-dependent difference of photo-excited hole and electron relaxation times probing the single particle band and the spin density wave gap, respectively. Reformation of the magnetic order occurs at 800 fs, which is four times slower compared to electron-phonon equilibration due to a smaller spin-dependent relaxation phase space

Ultrafast Dynamics of Correlated Electrons

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