Taking its usual delight in reporting on the freakishness of life in the United States, Le Monde reported the death of a New York Wal-Mart employee, crushed to death by the stampeding crowd of 2000 shoppers rushing in to fill their baskets on what is apparently known as "Black Friday" (I remember the sales on the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year in the US, but this is the first I've heard of Black Friday). The special irony was that this tragic event occurred as the day was dawning in some parts of the world on the annual "Buy nothing day" (poster above), begun in 1992 in the United States and Canada with the cry "Enough is enough !"and taken up by the French organization Casseurs de Pub (Adbusters). The goal is to make people aware of the human and environmental costs in producing all that we consume and in discarding all that we can't or don't eat, reuse or recycle. Yet here where there is fairly strong anti- and alter-globalization sentiment, the day has received almost no coverage in the press. Despite the precipitous drop in spending power since the introduction of the euro now aggravated by the global economic crisis, the focus is on pushing consumption to shore up the economy. Le Monde's linking of these two stories on its websites seems like a subtle call to push back.
Death by Consumption on Buy Nothing Day
Taking its usual delight in reporting on the freakishness of life in the United States, Le Monde reported the death of a New York Wal-Mart employee, crushed to death by the stampeding crowd of 2000 shoppers rushing in to fill their baskets on what is apparently known as "Black Friday" (I remember the sales on the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year in the US, but this is the first I've heard of Black Friday). The special irony was that this tragic event occurred as the day was dawning in some parts of the world on the annual "Buy nothing day" (poster above), begun in 1992 in the United States and Canada with the cry "Enough is enough !"and taken up by the French organization Casseurs de Pub (Adbusters). The goal is to make people aware of the human and environmental costs in producing all that we consume and in discarding all that we can't or don't eat, reuse or recycle. Yet here where there is fairly strong anti- and alter-globalization sentiment, the day has received almost no coverage in the press. Despite the precipitous drop in spending power since the introduction of the euro now aggravated by the global economic crisis, the focus is on pushing consumption to shore up the economy. Le Monde's linking of these two stories on its websites seems like a subtle call to push back.
On November 30
On this day in ...... 1943 (65 years ago today), Etty Hillesum perished at Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp in Poland. Given the name Esther when born 29 years earlier in Middleburg, the Netherlands, Hillesum (right) earned a law degree at the University of Amsterdam and then began studying Slavic languages. In 1941 she began to keep a diary of life in Nazi-occuped Netherlands; a year later, expecting to be sent to Camp Westerbork, she asked to be sent there to do social work as a representative of the Jewish Council. She and her family were ordered transferred to Auschwitz in 
September 1943.
September 1943.... 1962, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously elected Burmese diplomat U Thant (left) to become the 3d Secretary-General of the United Nations. He had been acting in that position since his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in a plane crash in September 1961, and would go on to serve until December 1971.
Read On! Women's International Human Rights
Women’s Human Rights: The International and Comparative Casebook (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) Cloth, 688 pages)
is one of the newest volumes issued by the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series.►Violence against Women, whether officially sanctioned or culturally-enforced (e.g., rape as a weapon of war or civil conflict,
►The Economic and Social Status and Rights of Women (e.g., labor and employment rights
Nikon D3x tulossa
Brittikuvaajan blogi kertoo, että Nikonin odotettu korkearesoluutioinen versio D3-kamerasta olisi tulossa vihdoinkin.
Arrogant? Nous?
A site calling itself Typealyzer has opened a virtual couch on which to analyze a blog's personality. (hat tip)
Here's what it has to say about IntLawGrrls:
But arrogant? Insensitive? Nous?
Now, this "evaluation" from 1 of the world's typealyzers (this site appears to have Swedish roots) is, of course, silly-season stuff. The description's an exercise of negative/positive blather familiar to anyone who's ever read an astrology column. Still, it invites thought.
We posted earlier on the tendency to link blogging with other traits often coded as masculine. Is this simply another example of that genderization? Maybe, maybe not. Could be that law professors -- as many of us are -- become accustomed to hearing their own voices, to speaking (impatiently) to those who "need some time to understand what" they "are talking about."
It's a twist on the question of balance raised more than a year ago by IntLawGrrl Hari M. Osofsky: Does legal work require one to leave the right brain at home? Should it?
Here's what it has to say about IntLawGrrls:The ThinkersSo far, so good. Same for the image above left, which accompanies the description. But then there's this:
The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications. They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality.
Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about.Impatient, yes; that's part of being a 'Grrl.
But arrogant? Insensitive? Nous?
Now, this "evaluation" from 1 of the world's typealyzers (this site appears to have Swedish roots) is, of course, silly-season stuff. The description's an exercise of negative/positive blather familiar to anyone who's ever read an astrology column. Still, it invites thought.
We posted earlier on the tendency to link blogging with other traits often coded as masculine. Is this simply another example of that genderization? Maybe, maybe not. Could be that law professors -- as many of us are -- become accustomed to hearing their own voices, to speaking (impatiently) to those who "need some time to understand what" they "are talking about."
It's a twist on the question of balance raised more than a year ago by IntLawGrrl Hari M. Osofsky: Does legal work require one to leave the right brain at home? Should it?
On November 29
On this day in ...... 1957, Janet Napolitano (left) was born in New York City. She grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and earned degrees from Santa Clara University and the University of Virginia School of Law. She began practicing law in Phoenix, and eventually became U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Arizona's 1st woman Attorney General, and, since 2003, Governor of Arizona. She is said to be President-Elect Barack Obama's top choice to become Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
... 1984, on conclusion of a 3-day tour of the region, James P. Grant, Executive Director of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), told The New York Times that more than 6 million people were "'in serious distress' as a result of the Ethiopian famine," adding
that 1 million of them were children under the age of 4. Before its end a year later the famine would claim 1 million lives in the country whose flag is at right.
Pimp my Canon
Ostin halvimman Canon digipokkarin ja latasin siihen uuden käyttöjärjestelmän. Halusin nähdä paranevatko halpiksen ominaisuudet ja tekeekö tuolla vehkeellä yhtään mitään. Ehkä otsikko hieman liioittelee, mutta pikku tuunauksestahan tässä on kyse.
Verkkokaupassa myydään Canon A460 pokkaria hintaan 71,90 euroa, joka ei ole edes talouslaman kynnyksellä liikaa kamerasta. Mutta tekeekö tuollaisella mitään ja voiko sitä ehkä hieman tuunata? Canonin pokkareihin on olemassa vaihtoehtoinen käyttöjärjestelmä nimeltään CHDK, jolla kameraan saa lisäominaisuuksia ja RAW kuvausmahdollisuudeen.
Varsinkin tuo RAW kiinnostaa, sillä Canon ei ole katsonut tarpeelliseksi tuota mahdollisuutta muissa kuin kalleimmassa G10-mallissa. Tämä on sikäli mielenkiintoista, että kun digikamerat olivat uusia keksintöjä, niin jokaisessa kamerassa oli RAW-mahdollisuus. Tuolloin ihan oikeasti juuri kukaan ei oikein tajunnut, että mitä RAW-kuvalla tehdään ja mitä etua siitä on. Työkalut RAW-kuvien käsittelyyn olivat myös aivan onnettomia eikä mitään esim. Lightroomiin verrattavaa ollut edes näköpiirissä. Nyt kun hyvät työkalut ovat olemassa, niin RAW-kuvia ei enään voi kuvata kuin muutamalla pokkarimallilla.
CHDK asennetaan muistikortille ja kamera käynnistyy kortilta, jolloin lisäominaisuudet ovat käytössä eikä kameraan tarvitse tehdä pysyviä muutoksia. Kaikki kameran vakio-ominaisuudet ovat käytettävissä kaiken aikaa ja CHDK:lle on oma menu, josta lisäherkkuja voi ottaa käyttöön. Tarkemmat ohjeet sun muut ovat CHDK:n kotisivuilla, jotka ovat hieman sekavat, mutta jos minä onnistuin tässä, niin silloin kuka tahansa muukin onnistuu.
CHDK laajentaa kameran vakiosäätöjä ja esim. ISO-arvon voi valita vapaammin ja autoISO-toiminnon voi kustomoida mieleisekseen. Myös näytöllä olevia tietoja kameran tilasta saa vakiota enemmän näkyville. Akun varaustila näkyy prosentin tarkkuudella, mutta myös akun lämpötilan saa näkyville tai vaikkapa CCD-kennon lämpötilan. CHDK:n tuomat lisäominaisuudet vaihtelevat hieman kameramallista toiseen, mutta jos jokin Canonin malli kiinnostaa ja siitä puuttu juuri se tietty ominaisuus, niin todennäköisesti CHDK korjaa tilanteen. Parasta on, että CHDK on ilmainen, joten sitä kannattaa ilman muuta kokeilla.
A 460 on mielestäni hyvä, jopa erinomainen pokkari hintaansa nähden. Käyttö on sujuvaa ja kuvan laatu hyvä. Toki rahalla saa lisäominaisuuksia, laajakulmaisemman objektiivin, lisää pikseleitä jne, mutta A 460 täyttää monet kuvaustarpeet aivan mallikkaasti. Viisi megapikseliä ei tunnu paljolta, mutta riittää hyvin kymppikuviin ja hieman isompiinkin.
RAW-kuvissa ei ole kovin ihmeellistä säätövaraa, varsinkin kun viime aikoina olen kuvaillut hieman toisenlaisilla kameroilla. Kameran jpg-kuvat ovat suhteellisen tiukkaan pakattuja ja runsaasti terävöitettyjä ja kuvissa näkyy pakkauksen jälkiä selvästi. RAW-kuvaaja voi säätää nuo asiat mielensä mukaan ja kaikista pikseleistä saa täyden hyödyn. Valotusta voi jonkin verran korjailla jälkeenpäin, mutta esim. ylivalotusta ei kovin paljoa saa pelastettua.
Tällaisen kameran tyypillinen ostaja ei varmaankaan halua harrastaa RAW-kuvien kehittelyä, mutta ainakin se on mahdollista. CHDK:n RAWien kanssa puuhastelu vaatii on kieltämättä pientä harrastuneisuutta, koska kuvilla on tiedostomuotonsa. Minä muutin kuvat DNG-muotoon ja avasin ne Lightroomissa, mutta CHDK:n kuvat aukevat käsittääkseni suoraankin joillakin ohjelmilla. Macille tarkoitettu muunto-ohjelma ei ainakaan minun konneessani suostunut prosessoimaan kuin kaksi kuvaa kerrallaan, joten tiedostojen muuntaminen oli hiukan hidasta.
Suosittelen kokeilemaan CHDK:ta, koska se on ilmainen ja parantaa Canon kameraasi. Yllä muutama kuva, jonka otin A460-kameralla. Ylin kuva on nimeltään Moonrise, Pihlajisto, Helsinki 2008. Esikuva on tietenkin tämä :-)
India Weeps
As Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday, the world yet again watched in shock and horror a scene now eerily familiar: coordinated bombings, this time in Mumbai, that targeted civilian locations (particularly those frequented by American and British tourists) and were stunning and terrifying in their boldness and scope. The thoughts of a nation and its diaspora were with the families of the victims, those who lost mothers, brothers, uncles, and nieces to this senseless violence.
One can only hope that these attacks are not used as excuses for further violence against Muslim minorities in India; that the world has learned from the attacks of September 11 and the excesses and abuses of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo that terror must be met with due process and fairness; that India's beautiful and vibrant democracy can overcome those who seek to destroy it without resorting to undemocratic means. History does not inspire confidence; prior terrorist threats have led India to institute draconian antiterrorism laws (the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act in the late 1980s and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) after 9/11) that were eventually scrapped because of serious civil rights violations (allowing detention for 180 days without charge; using confessions to police as evidence in court). And Indira Gandhi's infamous State of Emergency, which suspended not only civil rights but also elections, ominously reminds us how national security threats can be used to perpetrate further rights abuses. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has thus far avoided the errors of the past; one of his first acts in office was the dismantling of POTA. His focus on ending financing for terrorist groups and using existing laws to fight terrorism seems promising. Here's hoping that Singh's balanced approach stands up through this crisis.
On November 28
On this day ...... 1843 (165 years ago today), as described at the website of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, the governments of Britain and France entered into this Anglo-Franco proclamation regarding what are now known as the Hawaiian Islands (left):
Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty the King of the French, taking into consideration the existence in the Sandwich Islands of a government capable of providing for the regularity of its relations with foreign nations, have thought it right to engage, reciprocally, to consider the Sandwich Islands as an Independent State, and never to take possession, neither directly or under the title of Protectorate, or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed.
The 2 thus officially gave recognition to the Hawaiian Kingdom, which then "entered into treaties with the major nations of the world and ... established over ninety legations and consulates in multiple seaports and cities." Observance of the date as a national independence holiday, Ka La Ku'oko'a, was suspended after U.S. intervention a half-century later, but has been revived in recent years.
... 1943 (65 years ago today), amid World War II, leaders of 3 Allied states met in Tehran, Iran. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin (right) discussed the waging of the war and sketched postwar plans. They would issue a Declaration at the end of the conference on December 1.
A day to give thanks ...
(credit for Farm Security Administration photo by Marjory Collins of the Landis family Thanksgiving dinner, Neffsville, Pennsylvania, 1942, courtesy of the Library of Congress)
...and to give condolences...
.. for the victims of last night's coordinated attacks in Mumbai, India -- the scores of civilians who have died, the indeterminate number of other persons who, at this writing, still are being held hostage by presumed terrorists.
On November 27
On this day in ...... 1967, French President Charles de Gaulle announced that he would veto Britain's application to become a member of the European Economic Community. It was the 2d time that de Gaulle had said "Non," even though the other 5 members, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Germany, were willing to begin negotiations to admit Britain. Britain would not be accepted until 1969, after de Gaulle had fallen from power.
... 1992, in Caracas, "[d]isgruntled air force units, allied with civilian leftists," attempted a military coup against the President of Venezuela (flag at right). The attempt failed. But the President was removed on account of corruption charges several months later, and eventually a leader of the 1992 unrest, Hugo Chávez, would gain power in the country.
60 miljoonaa pikseliä pikatestissä
Kisa on kovaa ja megapikseleistä taistellaan keskikoon digitaalikameroissakin. Phase One on yksi digiajan konkareita keskikoon kameroissa. Tämä pieni tankalaisvalmistaja työllistää n. 112 henkeä ja pääkonttori tuotantotiloineen on aivan Kööpenhaminan keskustassa. Konttorit ovat myös Yhdysvalloissa sekä Kiinassa.
Phase One tuo ensi vuoden alkupuolella markkinoille tähän mennessä eniten megapikseleitä, 60 miljoonaa. Aivan oikein 60 miljoonaa. Uudessa kolmannen sukupolven digiperässä käytettävä Dalsan tanskalaisille yksinoikeudella valmistama CCD-kenno on pikseleiden lukumäärän ohella myös fyysisiltä mitoiltaan suurempi kuin missään muussa kuluttajille myytävässä digitaalikamerassa. Kenno on nimittäin osapuilleen täyden 6 x 4,5 filmiruudun kokoinen, tarkalleen ottaen 53,9 x 40,4 mm ja siten n. 20% isompi kuin nykyisin yleisesti käytössä oleva 48 x 36 mm kenno. Käytettävissä oleva herkkyysalue on 50 - 800 ASA.
Phase One nimellä kulkeva kamerarunko perustuu Mamiyan 645 kameraan ja ison kennon myötä objektiivit ovat kuvakulmaltaan myös sitä mitä ne olivat filmille kuvattaessakin. Phase One digitaaliperille on sovitteita myös lähes kaikkiin muihin keskikoon kamerarunkoihin, joten vanhaa runkoa voi todennäköisesti hyödyntää uuden perän kanssa, jos niin haluaa.
Uusi 60 mp digiperä tulee siis alkuvuodesta, mutta minulla oli mahdollisuus kuvata hieman uuden perän prototyypillä, joita on olemassa kuusi kappaletta koko maailmassa. Valmistajan edustaja John Kristoffersen oli käymässä Suomessa ja keräämässä palautetta varsinaista tuotantoa varten ja tässä yhteydessä pääsin tyypittämään laitetta. Koekuvaus maahantuojan luona oli varsin pikainen, mutta sain ottaa tiedostoja mukaani sillä ehdolla, että jos julkaisen niitä, niin kerron kuvanneeni prototyypillä. Kuvasin siis Phase One 65+ digiperän prototyypillä, jonka tekemät tiedostot eivät kaikilta osin vastaa tuotantomallin tiedostoja. Nyt se on sanottu.
Kamerarunko on tuttua Mamiyaa ja mukava käsitellä. Digiperä on erittäin tukevaa tekoa, jota John demosi laittamalla perän lattialle ja seisomalla sen päällä. Takaosan näyttö on pienempi kuin uusissa kinokoon digijärjestelmäkameroissa, mutta suhteellisen selkeäkokoinen silti. Navigointi näytöllä hoituu neljällä napilla, jotka eivät vedä vertoja joystick tyyppiselle ratkaisulle, mutta totuttelun jälkeen käyttöliittymä on suhteellisen sujuva. Kuvausnopeus on yksi kuva per sekunti 21 kuvaa putkeen, joka on hyvä vauhti ottaen huomioon ison datamäärän. Pikseleitähän on lähes kolme kertaa se mitä esim. Canonin parhaissa ja Phase One kuvaa ainoastaan 16 bittistä RAW kuvaa. Yksi kuvatiedosto vie tilaa aiheesta riippuen reilut 60 megatavua. Pikseleillä mitattuna kuvan koko on muhevat 8984 x 6732 pikseliä.
Rungossa oli kuvaushetkellä kiinni 80 millinen normaaliobjektiivi, jonka kanssa kokonaisuus oli todella käteen käypä ja ei juuri kinaria isommalta tuntunut. Olen joskus omistanut Mamiya 645:n, joten sillä on osuutensa, että kapine tuntui heti hyvältä käytellä. Jalustan käyttö on suotavaa, jos suljinajat uhkaavat pidentyä lähelle riskirajaa, sillä pienikin tärähdys näkyy kuvassa.
Uusia objektiiveja tulee Mamiyalta ensi vuonna seitsemän kappaletta, jotka myydään Phase One-nimellä. Myös Leica on tekemässä merkkiin sopivia objektiiveja, jotka eivät ole samoja Leican uuden keskikoon järjestelmän kanssa. Uusilla objektiiveilla Phase One varmistaa, että kaikki 60:n megapikselin tallentamat yksityiskohdat saadaan talteen.
Kuvatiedostot ovat parasta mitä olen mistään digikamerasta nähnyt ja yksityiskohtien määrä on lähes uskomaton. Kuvasta voi erottaa kirjaimellisesti pienimmätkin yksityiskohdat ja kuvatiedoston sävyala saattaa häpeään parhaatkin kinodigit.
Hasselbladin aloittama hintojen lasku on pakottanut muutkin vastaavien laitteiden valmistajat pudottamaan hintojaan, mutta Phase Onen 65+ digiperä ei silti ole kaikille mahdollinen, sillä hinta tulee olemaan 29 900 euroa + arvonlisävero.
Kun malli saadaan tuotantoon ja Suomeenkin esittelykappale, niin teen perusteellisen koekuvauksen, mutta tämä tapahtuu siis ensi vuoden puolella.
Sitä odotellessa täällä hieman esimakua tulevasta.
Witness Proofing & International Criminal Law
In a series of procedural rulings, the International Criminal Court is asserting its inquisitorial character. One decision in particular has caught my attention: that concerned with the practice of a party meeting with a witness in advance of trial to prepare him or her to give testimony, often called witness proofing.
Preparing witnesses in advance of trial has been expressly condoned by the ad
hoc tribunals, notwithstanding that they draw personnel from a variety of procedural backgrounds and systems. For example, in Karemera, one of the defendants, Édouard Karemera (left) (photo credit), had sought an order from a Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda preventing the Prosecution from preparing its witnesses prior to their giving testimony. Rejecting the motion, the Trial Chamber, at paragraph 15, sanctioned the practice under the following conditions:
The Appeals Chamber affirmed, noting that in the absence of an express rule on point, Rule 89(B) of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence generally confers discretion on the Trial Chamber to apply
Indeed, a survey of national law revealed wide variations in witness preparation practices, suggesting no general principle of law and no consensus that the practice is inherently unethical or prejudicial to the accused. The Chamber noted that the defendant is free to explore issues of witness coaching or manipulation on cross-examination.
A Trial Chamber of the ICC has taken an opposite approach, and this raises concerns with respect to witness preparation in general and with the prosecution of gender crimes in
particular. In the case of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (left) (photo credit), the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber specifically prohibited the Prosecution from proofing its witnesses on the ground that the Prosecution had failed to show that the practice is widely accepted in international criminal law, which would enable it to be considered part of the applicable law of the Court pursuant to Article 21(1). The Pre-Trial Chamber reasoned that witnesses “belong” to neither the Prosecution nor the Defence, but are rather witnesses of the Court. A Trial Chamber affirmed the decision on a motion for reconsideration, noting that the ICC’s procedures differ markedly in a number of ways from the procedural regimes of the ad hoc tribunals. It determined that while it may be appropriate for a witness to review his or her prior statements, there should be no discussion of the topics to be dealt with in court that might result in a “rehearsal” of trial testimony. As it now stands before the ICC, the general familiarization with the courtroom and its proceedings are to be conducted by the Registry rather than by either party.
The ICTR position seems the better one in the context of international criminal law, where trials may happen years from the events in question and involve traumatized witnesses with little experience with legal institutions or processes. Allowing the parties to meet with witnesses in advance of their testimony can enable witnesses to
► refresh their recollections of events;
► review any prior statements;
► fully identify relevant facts (including exculpatory evidence);
► work on presenting their evidence in a more complete, orderly, and structured manner; and
► prepare for cross-examination.
Having witnesses take the stand “cold” threatens to
► render them unprepared to testify effectively before the Court,
► set them up for re-traumatization during any cross-examination, and
► risk their being discredited where their testimony is stilted, confused or diverges from statements that may have been taken years prior.
Victims of sexual violence, in particular, may find it difficult to testify about what happened to them without the benefit of some prior preparation.
If the Lubanga decision is adopted by the entire ICC, it will be crucial for the ICC judges to manage the trial process so that it does not devolve into an adversarial proceeding for which witnesses will be ill-prepared. Allowing witnesses to be
aggressively cross-examined by either side without warning or preparation could be severely re-traumatizing and would undermine any rehabilitative potential of participating in a justice process.
International criminal law procedural rules are, no doubt, sui generis. The risk is, however, that international criminal tribunals simply pluck particular procedural rules out of their larger context without recognizing that these rules exist in an inter-locking and inter-dependent system. The result can be a Frankenstein's monster of procedural rules that does nothing to promote efficiency or fairness.
Preparing witnesses in advance of trial has been expressly condoned by the ad
hoc tribunals, notwithstanding that they draw personnel from a variety of procedural backgrounds and systems. For example, in Karemera, one of the defendants, Édouard Karemera (left) (photo credit), had sought an order from a Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda preventing the Prosecution from preparing its witnesses prior to their giving testimony. Rejecting the motion, the Trial Chamber, at paragraph 15, sanctioned the practice under the following conditions:Provided that it does not amount to the manipulation of a witness’s evidence, this practice may encompass preparing and familiarizing a witness with the proceedings before the Tribunal, comparing prior statements made by a witness, detecting differences and inconsistencies in recollection of the witness, allowing a witness to refresh his or her memory in respect of the evidence he or she will give, and inquiring and disclosing to the Defence additional information and/or evidence of incriminatory or exculpatory nature in sufficient time prior to the witness’s testimony.
The Appeals Chamber affirmed, noting that in the absence of an express rule on point, Rule 89(B) of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence generally confers discretion on the Trial Chamber to apply
rules of evidence which will best favour a fair determination of the matter before it and are consonant with the spirit of the Statute and the general principles of law.
Indeed, a survey of national law revealed wide variations in witness preparation practices, suggesting no general principle of law and no consensus that the practice is inherently unethical or prejudicial to the accused. The Chamber noted that the defendant is free to explore issues of witness coaching or manipulation on cross-examination.
A Trial Chamber of the ICC has taken an opposite approach, and this raises concerns with respect to witness preparation in general and with the prosecution of gender crimes in
particular. In the case of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (left) (photo credit), the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber specifically prohibited the Prosecution from proofing its witnesses on the ground that the Prosecution had failed to show that the practice is widely accepted in international criminal law, which would enable it to be considered part of the applicable law of the Court pursuant to Article 21(1). The Pre-Trial Chamber reasoned that witnesses “belong” to neither the Prosecution nor the Defence, but are rather witnesses of the Court. A Trial Chamber affirmed the decision on a motion for reconsideration, noting that the ICC’s procedures differ markedly in a number of ways from the procedural regimes of the ad hoc tribunals. It determined that while it may be appropriate for a witness to review his or her prior statements, there should be no discussion of the topics to be dealt with in court that might result in a “rehearsal” of trial testimony. As it now stands before the ICC, the general familiarization with the courtroom and its proceedings are to be conducted by the Registry rather than by either party.The ICTR position seems the better one in the context of international criminal law, where trials may happen years from the events in question and involve traumatized witnesses with little experience with legal institutions or processes. Allowing the parties to meet with witnesses in advance of their testimony can enable witnesses to
► refresh their recollections of events;
► review any prior statements;
► fully identify relevant facts (including exculpatory evidence);
► work on presenting their evidence in a more complete, orderly, and structured manner; and
► prepare for cross-examination.
Having witnesses take the stand “cold” threatens to
► render them unprepared to testify effectively before the Court,
► set them up for re-traumatization during any cross-examination, and
► risk their being discredited where their testimony is stilted, confused or diverges from statements that may have been taken years prior.
Victims of sexual violence, in particular, may find it difficult to testify about what happened to them without the benefit of some prior preparation.
If the Lubanga decision is adopted by the entire ICC, it will be crucial for the ICC judges to manage the trial process so that it does not devolve into an adversarial proceeding for which witnesses will be ill-prepared. Allowing witnesses to be
aggressively cross-examined by either side without warning or preparation could be severely re-traumatizing and would undermine any rehabilitative potential of participating in a justice process.International criminal law procedural rules are, no doubt, sui generis. The risk is, however, that international criminal tribunals simply pluck particular procedural rules out of their larger context without recognizing that these rules exist in an inter-locking and inter-dependent system. The result can be a Frankenstein's monster of procedural rules that does nothing to promote efficiency or fairness.
On November 26
On this day in ...... 1997, Thelma Chalifoux (left) began a term in the Canadian Senate. The 1st Métis woman to become a senator, Chalifoux, a native of Calgary, Alberta, served until reaching the age of 75 in April 2004. (photo credit)
... 1968 (40 years ago today), the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, about which we've posted, was adopted. It entered into force on November 11, 1970. Today it has 52 states parties; the United States is not among them.
Write On! International economic law
(Write On! is an occasional item about notable calls for papers.)The American Society of International Law's International Economic Law Interest Group is soliciting proposals for its first "outside-the-beltway" research colloquium.
Scheduled for Friday, February 13, 2009 at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, the colloquium is the first in an annual series of colloquia which will be organized by the interest group. Submissions may address any area of international economic law.
Apologies for the short notice: The deadline for submissions is December 8, 2008!
What Obama Might Learn From JFK
Even before the transition to power, the Obama Administration is facing a crisis to his presidency. The current economic crisis promises to be the Goliath that will take all of Barack Obama's brains and guts to slay. While some argue the level and extent of the crisis has led us to unchartered waters, it seems important to learn from history as the new administration moves forward.Another young, inspiring, and out-of-the-ordinary president faced similar challenges in the early days of his presidency. In 1961, John F. Kennedy became the nation's thirty-fifth president. He came to power at a time of uncertainty for the United States: The Cold War was in full gear, the economy was troubled, and both special interests and the "Joe The Plumbers" of his day called for a time of retrenchment and isolation. What did Kennedy do? The exact opposite. Kennedy recognized America needed to provided leadership not only locally but globally. He set an ambitious international agenda, and one of the centerpieces of his strategy was his agenda. Despite opposition from members of his own party, and special interests he needed to appease, Kennedy successfully persuaded Congress to grant him the greatest
trade negotiating authority of his day. Although he did not live to see his trade agenda implemented, Kennedy's legacy lives on in the results of the Kennedy Round of trade negotiations, the most successful trade round of its time. What might Obama learn from Kennedy? John F. Kennedy ultimately learned that a robust trading system was the best defense against economic collapse. While Obama has made numerous pronouncements on his economic policy, he remains silent on his trade agenday. I suggest Obama take notice of Kennedy's strategy and focus also on trade to help the nation out of this economic crisis.
On Art! Beyond Babylon...to federal court
(In this installment of IntLawGrrls "On Art!" series on artifacts of transnational culture, guest blogger Judith Weingarten, an archaeologist, returns to the blog with an account of legal issues swirling about a new show at a leading U.S. art museum)The latest archaeological blockbuster at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.
The exhibit, which opened a week ago today, runs through March 15, 2009, and is the subject of this New York Times review, is the direct sequel to the Met's 2003 Art of the First Cities, which covered the third millennium B.C. But unlike the 2003 show, which took place as American troops invaded the heartland of ancient Mesopotamia, there is a gaping hole in the new show: 55 pieces from Syria — stone sculptures; frescoes; goldwork, including this stupendous bowl from the ancient city of Ugarit (below left) – were not sent as promised to New York.
In a wall card near the beginning of the show, the Met thanks the Syrian government for its
willingness to lend such important objects, and expresses "deep regret that recent legislation in the United States has made it too difficult and risky for the planned loans to proceed." That legislation, an amendment made in January to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, permits private individuals claiming to be victims of state-sponsored terrorism to file liens against property belonging to that state whenever the property is in the United States. Property loaned to museums may fall within the ambit of this amendment.
This is the almost inevitable sequel to the legal battle over the Persepolis tablets.
In a wall card near the beginning of the show, the Met thanks the Syrian government for its
willingness to lend such important objects, and expresses "deep regret that recent legislation in the United States has made it too difficult and risky for the planned loans to proceed." That legislation, an amendment made in January to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, permits private individuals claiming to be victims of state-sponsored terrorism to file liens against property belonging to that state whenever the property is in the United States. Property loaned to museums may fall within the ambit of this amendment.This is the almost inevitable sequel to the legal battle over the Persepolis tablets.
What are the Persepolis Fortification Tablets?
In size and durability, the Achaemenid Persian Empire had no equal before the creation of the Roman Empire and, like the Roman Empire, it created an area of political, economic, and cultural connections of an unprecedented scale. The Great King Darius I (522–486 B.C.) built
an imperial residence complex at Persepolis – today, Iran. This empire came to a brutal end when Alexander the Great conquered, looted, and burned the city in 330/329 B.C. Even in ruins, the massive platform, lofty columns, sculptured walls, and staircases were imposing, and for many centuries they attracted visitors.
But it was not until 1931 that The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago began to excavate what lay beneath these standing ruins. One entirely surprising discovery was a large group of 15,000 to 30,000 or more cuneiform clay tablets. Together, these tablets constituted proof that behind the splendid palaces and sculptured façades that were the setting for the court of the Great Kings stood an administrative apparatus that controlled movements of food, animals, and labor in the region around the palaces, relying on an information system that was as complex and sophisticated as any in the ancient world.
Until their discovery, the main written sources for the Persian Empire were those written by foreigners — notably the Hebrew Bible and Greek sources such as Herodotus and historians of Alexander’s campaigns. These accounts, quite naturally, gave a partial and biased picture of the
Persian Empire.
The Persepolis tablets thus have a very deep modern significance as irreplaceable items of cultural heritage for the people of Iran. Persepolis and the Persian Empire are central symbols of their cultural identity.
It was therefore an extraordinary act of trust and international scholarly cooperation for when the Iranian government to allow the tablets to be brought to the Oriental Institute in 1936 on a long-term loan for purposes of conservation, translation and analysis. The massive quantity and fragile physical condition, coupled with the challenges of reading the texts. have made their analysis and publication a difficult, long-term project. Already it has extended for seventy years, and it is still far from completion. (Details on the tablet archive project are here.)
Return of the Texts
From the time of the tablets’ first arrival in Chicago, researchers at the Oriental Institute were keenly aware of the texts’ importance as the cultural heritage of the Iranian people, and of their scholarly responsibility not only to translate the tablets but also to ensure their return as loan objects back to Iran once analysis and recording were complete. The most recent return of
loaned tablets, in 2004, received extensive in the international media. It therefore came as a complete shock when, several months later, the Oriental Institute was served with legaldocuments demanding that it surrender the Persepolis tablets to satisfy the legal claims for damages in a lawsuit by victims of a Hamas bombing attack in Israel. (Details on the litigaton may be found here and here and here.)
The Oriental Institute found itself caught in the middle of a complex legal drama that began in Jerusalem in 1997 and is now playing out in a federal courthouse in Chicago. In 1997, a group of American tourists fell victim to a bombing attack in Jerusalem. The Palestinian organization Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing. The surviving victims and the families of those who died argued that the Islamic Republic of Iran had funded Hamas and should therefore be held accountable to pay compensation. When the case was heard in federal court in Rhode Island, representatives of the state of Iran did not appear to contest the case. As a result, a default judgment was entered against Iran for over $400 million in damages. Because the tablets are on loan from Iran to the Oriental Institute, the plaintiffs are attempting to appropriate and sell them to satisfy the claim for damages. The Oriental Institute and the University of Chicago maintain that the law does not allow for the seizure of cultural heritage as compensation.
Whose tablets are these anyway?
The tablets are not commercial assets like oil wells, tankers, or houses. Instead, these types of culturally unique and important materials fall within a special protected category and are not subject to seizure. This trove of tablets has never been a commercial item to be bought or sold. The tablets have never been a source of profit either to Iran or to the Oriental Institute. They are non-commercial items of cultural heritage, every bit as unique and important as the original document of the Constitution of the United States. (Imagine if a future Iraqi government were to put a lien on that document.) The stakes are enormous. If the lawsuit prevails, this would do irrevocable harm to scholarly cooperation and cultural exchanges throughout the world.
That is already starting to happen. The Syrian government had offered to lend the Met invaluable parts of their cultural heritage: many of these objects that had never left the country before. Of American institutions, only the Met has the resources to pull off such a project, which depends as much on personal contacts as on cash.
That little card on the wall doesn’t say it all.
The Met submitted applications for immunity from seizure for all the borrowed foreign works — including pieces from Armenia, Georgia, Greece, Lebanon and Turkey, as well as Syria — but
finally decided that the FSIA amendment jeopardized the Syrian loans. Though not on display, the 55 Syrian objects are in the catalog. There you can see how important a role they played in the internationalist narrative conceived by Joan Aruz (right), the curator in charge of the Met’s department of ancient Near Eastern art.On November 25
On this day in ...
... 1988 (20 years ago today), the instrument of U.S. ratification of the Convention Against
Genocide was deposited with the United Nations. The United States had signed the treaty, which today has 140 states parties, on December 11, 1948.
... 1973 (35 years ago today), the Greek military rolled tanks into Athens and staged a coup amid "growing unrest in Greece," "eight days after student uprisings in which 13 people died and hundreds were injured." The regime lasted only a few months.
... 1988 (20 years ago today), the instrument of U.S. ratification of the Convention Against
Genocide was deposited with the United Nations. The United States had signed the treaty, which today has 140 states parties, on December 11, 1948.... 1973 (35 years ago today), the Greek military rolled tanks into Athens and staged a coup amid "growing unrest in Greece," "eight days after student uprisings in which 13 people died and hundreds were injured." The regime lasted only a few months.
Sisukas repparikeikka
Olin käymässä Sisulla, siis Karjaan autotehtaassa. Teollisuuslaitokset ovat aina mielenkiintoisia paikkoja ja työni vuoksi minulla on mahdollisuus vierailla monissa paikoissa, joihin ei muuten vaan pääse. Autot ovat minulle läheinen aihe, joten lähdin mielelläni Sisulle. Tämä tosin ei ollut ensimmäinen kerta, mutta viime käynnistäni Karjaan tehtaassa oli jo muutama vuosi kulunut.
Kuvasin Talouselämä-lehden tämän viikon numeroon tulevaan juttuun, joka käsittelee autoteollisuuden ahdinkoa. Tavoitteena oli saada jutun avauskuva sekä muutama muu käyttökelpoinen otos. Myös mahdollinen kansikuva oli hakusessa, mutta en vielä tiedä päätyykö kanteen minun vai jonkun toisen kuvaajan otos.
Olin etukäteen päättänyt kuvata vallitsevassa valossa aitoon repparityyliin, koska tiesin, että valaistus olisi kuvauspaikalla hyvä. Joskus käytän lisävaloja, siis salamoita, tämän tyyppisissä kuvauksissa, mutta tämän halusin tehdä näin. Ajattelin, että ehkä perinteinen tyyli sopii aiheeseen paremmin kuin salamoilla valaistut kuvat.
Kalustona oli vakiokalut, eli 2 x Canon 5D, 35 mm, 85 mm ja 15 mm kalansilmä, jonka otin tällä kertaa mukaan oikean laajakulman sijaan. Herkkyytenä käytin ISO 800, jolla pärjäsi hienosti. Tämän tyyppisessä kuvauksessa laitan sisätiloissa yleensä riittävästi herkkyyttä kameraan, jolloin voin käyttää lyhyitä valotusaikoja. Kun kuva on painetaan lehteen, niin on ihan sama laadun kannalta kuvaanko ISO 100 vai ISO 800 asetuksella. Tärähtäneet kuvat sen sijaan ovat käyttökelvottomia, joten riittävän lyhyt suljinaika on tärkeä.
Ohessa muutama kuva Sisulta.
Mikä V*tun ankka?!
Tämä sarjakuva on jo monen tiedossa, mutta sanottakoon vielä kerran, että jokaisen valokuvaajan lempisarjakuvastrippi on ilman muuta What the Duck. Tuon sivun oikeassa alanurkassa on widgetti, jolla Macin käyttäjät saavat Ankan Dashboardiin ja siten automaattisesti työpöydällensä aina uusimman stripin. Jos menet sivulle ensi kertaa, niin kannattaa tutustua arkistossa oleviin Ankkoihin myös.
Erittäin suositeltava!
California marriage equality back in Court
'I think people are beginning to look at it differently, I know it’s happened for me. I started out not supporting it. The longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve seen the happiness of people, the stability that these commitments bring to a life. Many adopted children who would have ended up in foster care now have good solid homes and are brought up learning the difference between right and wrong. It’s a very positive thing.'
-- U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.), quoted yesterday in Maureen Dowd's column. Feinstein (above right) was among the precious few high-ranking politicians who cut a television ad against Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that aimed to limit marriage in California to opposite-sex couples. (Prior posts here and here.)
Prop 8 passed by a margin of 52.1% to 47.9%. But it remains to be seen whether it will take effect. The California Supreme Court (below) has agreed by this order to hear petitions contending that the simple-majority-rules initiative process cannot be used to take a fundamental right like marriage away from a group that the Court has declared a suspect class -- as the Court did for same-sex couples in In re Marriage Cases (May 2008) (prior post). Invoking the Equal Protection Clause, petitioners argue that the only way to effect such a deprivation is by the state's more cumbersome, super-majority-needed "revision" process.
Throughout the course of this new round of litigation, filings by litigants and the many amici curiae may be found here.
On November 24
On this day in ...
... 2003 (5 years ago today), a NewsHour reporter declared "the dawn of a new era" in Georgia, a day after 200 guardsman turned against the 
sitting President, who'd threatened to declare a state of emergency after election irregularities in the Caucasus state whose flag is at right. The events are known as the Rose Revolution. IntLawGrrls posts on more recent events in the country are here.
sitting President, who'd threatened to declare a state of emergency after election irregularities in the Caucasus state whose flag is at right. The events are known as the Rose Revolution. IntLawGrrls posts on more recent events in the country are here.... 1898 (110 years ago today), diplomats and police officials from 21 European countries began the International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists. The meeting ended a month later with a final protocol setting forth mechanisms for international law enforcement cooperation against anarchist organizations.
Etulinssi puhtaaksi
Palauttaessani Hasselbladia viime viikolla maahantuojan tehomyyjä esitteli minulle Carl Zeissin linssinpuhdistussarjaa. No, siinä kävi juuri niin kuin myyjä oli suunnitellutkin, eli minä ostin paketin, jossa on puhdistusainetta ja mikrokuituliina. Hinta oli tasan kympin, joten ei siinä pahasti kiville voinut mennä.
Toimistolle päästyäni kokeilin ainetta ja sehän toimii. Suihkaus pullosta liinaan, jolla muutama pyyhkäisy linssin pinnalla, niin lika lähtee. Havaitsin, että ensin kannattaa pyyhkiä kostealla liinalla ja sitten kuivalla viimeistellä, niin ei jää jälkiä.
En ole tällaisia tuotteita kovin paljon kokeillut, mutta ainakin tämä tuntuu pelaavan. Kuuden objektiivin etulinssin puhdistuksen perusteella suosittelen. Toimii myös silmälaseille.
Still married after all these proceedings
The other shoe has finally dropped: the Court of Appeals in Douai (France) has ruled that the couple whose marriage was annulled because the bride was not a virgin is still married. As you may recall, the young bride on her wedding night admitted she was not a virgin and was taken back to her parents by her displeased father-in-law and husband, who then won an annulment on the grounds that he had made a mistake as to the bride's 
"essential qualities." Initially Rachida Dati (left), the Minister of Justice who herself had had an early marriage annuled, defended the annulment as protecting the parties by avoiding divorce, as divorced Muslim women are frowned upon. While protecting the parties interests is indeed one of law's essential functions, many of us quibble with the lower court's acceptance of virginity as an essential bridal quality. The Court of Appeals agrees with us:a lie that does not concern an essential quality is not a valid basis for annuling a marriage...This is particularly true when the alleged lie concerns the past love life of the future wife and her virginity, which is not an essential quality as its absence has no effect on married life.I must confess this ruling did not surprise me, given all the hoopla. But I've just been teaching my Introduction to Law students about judicial independence and impartiality and equality before the law and realize that aside from any hoopla or disagreement as to whether or not virginity is an essential bridal quality, there is an issue of equality before the law buried in this case: what non-Muslim couple would be allowed to annul their marriage on such grounds? Indeed, the report of the appellate judgment, unlike reports of the annulment, indicates not that both parties requested the annulment, but that the "roughly 20-year-old" bride only gave in to her "roughly 30-year-old" husband's request for fear of a long, drawn out legal proceeding. Were divorce as easy (ie lawyer/judge-free) in France as it is elsewhere, the bride's interests would have been much better protected than Dati thought they were by annulment on retrograde grounds. As it is, the girl who feared long proceedings is now apparently going to sue for atteinte à la dignité (damage to her dignity).
On November 23
On this day in ...... 1978 (30 years ago today), the Commission for Racial Equality, a nongovernmental body formed in Britain 2 years earlier by the Race Relations Act, issued its 1st non-discrimination notice, ordering a popular Birmingham nightclub "to open its doors to black and Chinese people." The order culminated a yearlong investigation prompted by 2 complaints. In 2007, the commission merged with 2 other rights groups to become the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
... 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 17, which authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct "'paramilitary'" operations "'against Cuban presence and Cuban-Sandinista support infrastructure in Nicaragua and elsewhere in Central America.'" NSDD-17, a facsimile of which is available here, launched U.S. support of Contra rebels.
JCE before the ECCC
As we’ve blogged before, the August 8, 2008 Closing Order (Indictment) filed before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) (its first) with respect to defendant Duch. Duch, who ran the detention, interrogation and execution camp S-21, a.k.a. Tuol Sleng (above) (photo credit), has been indicted for crimes against humanity (imprisonment, enslavement, torture, rape, murder, extermination, persecution, other inhumane acts) and war crimes (unlawful confinement, depriving rights to a fair trial, wilfully causing great suffering, torture and inhumane treatment, willful killing). In terms of the 
applicable forms of responsibility, Duch (left) is alleged to have committed, ordered, planned, instigated, aided, and abetted the crimes in question. In addition, he has been indicted under the doctrine of superior responsibility by virtue of the fact that he exercised effective command and control over the staff of S-21. The Closing Order limits his “commission” of crimes to those incidents in which Duch “personally tortured or mistreated detainees.”The Co-Prosecutors have appealed the Closing Order, arguing inter alia that Duch should also have been indicted for his participation in crimes pursuant to a joint criminal enterprise (JCE). The ECCC Law does not specifically mention the availability of JCE as a form of commission, but the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the landmark Tadić decision treated JCE as a prosecutable form of “commission,” even though its Statute is also silent as to this form of responsibility and excludes conspiracy except with respect to the crime of genocide (in keeping with Article III of the Genocide Convention).
The ECCC invited Professor Antonio Cassese (left), among others, to submit an amicus curiae brief focused on the availability of the doctrine of JCE before the ECCC, with a particular emphasis on its applicability during the Khmer Rouge era. Incidentally, another defendant, Ieng Sary (below left), moved to disqualify the brief on the ground that it would be “result determinative” given that Cassese served on the appellate panel of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that rendered the Tadić opinion. The Pre-Trial Chamber rejected the disqualification challenge for lack of standing.
As Sary prophesied, the brief, which was filed on October 27, 2008, largely tracks the ICTY’s reasoning in the Tadić case. In particular, it identifies a collection of cases from the post-World War II prosecutions that were based on theories of common purpose or design and argues that these doctrines had crystallized into customary international criminal law prior to 1975. In addition, the brief argues that JCE liability would have been sufficiently established and assessable in domestic legislation and case law (including from France and Cambodia) to provide adequate notice to the accused in keeping with the principle of nullum crimen sine lege (no crime without law).JCE is traditionally conceived of as encompassing three overlapping forms.
► The first (“basic”) mode provides for liability where an individual intentionally acts collectively with others to commit international crimes pursuant to a common plan.
► The second (“systemic”) form provides for liability for individuals who contribute to the maintenance or essential functions of a criminal institution or system, such as a concentration or detention camp.
► The third, and most controversial form, provides for extended liability, not only for crimes intentionally committed pursuant to the common design, but also for crimes that were the natural and foreseeable consequence of implementing the common design.
The theory with this latter form is that participants in the JCE willingly took the risk of the commission of additional non-intentional but foreseeable crimes.
Most relevant to S-21, of course, is the second JCE form. Under this form, Duch could be held liable not only for crimes he personally committed or ordered, but also for crimes that were
committed throughout S-21 pursuant to the prison’s criminal mission. (Photo at right is a display from S-21, now a museum, showing dozens of the thousands of people who passed through the prison. More photos are available here). The punishment accorded to the defendant can be modulated at the sentencing phase to reflect the precise degree of an individual’s involvement in, and thus culpability for, the crimes of the JCE.It is not clear how many crimes might escape prosecution in the absence of JCE allegations in the indictment.
► As chairman of S-21, Duch can be held responsible for any crimes committed by his subordinates when he knew, or should have known, about such crimes and failed to take adequate steps to prevent or punish them.
► He can also be held directly liable for ordering or planning crimes, or for otherwise aiding or abetting them through the knowing or intentional provision of substantial assistance to the direct perpetrator.
The only crimes that seem to fall through the cracks without JCE liability are crimes committed by non-subordinates (individuals over whom Duch did not exercise effective command or control), crimes of which he was not aware and could not have reasonably been aware, or crimes that he did not order, plan, or substantially assist.
The third, extended, form of JCE could also be utilized to hold Duch responsibility for crimes (such as rape and other forms of sexual violence) that he did not order, did not intend to be committed, or did not know had been committed, but were nonetheless foreseeable given the abject conditions of detention prevailing at S-21.
Given the volumes of direct evidence against Duch, including his own partial confessions and admissions as detailed in the Closing Order, he is unlikely to escape responsibility entirely. Nonetheless, the Co-Prosecutors are no doubt looking to the future to ensure that JCE liability is available for other defendants in the dock who were likely very far from the commission of crimes, but nonetheless could be alleged to have participated in, indeed launched, a vast JCE to establish a utopian agrarian state, through violence where necessary, and to rid Cambodia of enemies of the revolution.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
