ERDEMOVIC - TADIC - DOKMANOVIC: JURISDICTION AND EARLY PRACTICE OF THE YUGOSLAV WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

Israel Yearbook on Human Rights

Volumn 27, Issue , 1997, Pages 313-364

  Green, Leslie C ^a,b  

^a US Naval College   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85008160860     PISSN: 03335925     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.1163/9789004423114_014     Document Type: Chapter

References (107)

1. Dayton Agreement - General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1995, Annex 2, 35 I.L.M. 75, 112.
2. 1997; 36 I.L.M. 396.
3. 78 U.N.T.S. 277.
4. Art. 6.
5. Thus, in Rwanda some 110000, including 2000 boys and 80 girls between the ages of 14 and 18 have been charged under Rwanda's Genocide Act, The Times (London), 12 August 1997; 20 April 1998.
6. Case No. IT-94-1-T, 14 July 1997, para. 8.
7. Canada, Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c.C-46, s.318.
8. L.C. Green, "The Status of Rebel Armies", 3 Malaya Univ. L.R. 25 (1961).
9. G.A. Res.217A(Ill).
10. T. Meron, Human Rights and HumanitarianNorms as CustomaryLaw (1989).
11. International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973), 13 I.L.M. 50.
12. M.C. Bassiouni & P. Manikas, The Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (1995).
13. S.C. Res. 955, 1994, Annex, 33 I.L.M. 1598.
14. Prosecutor v. Dusko Tadic , Case No. IT-94-1-T Oct. 2,1995, 35 I.L.M. 32.
15. Para. 30. This issue is discussed more fully below.
16. Paras. 32-40.
17. By which the Tribunal was established.
18. The International Law Commission has drawn up a draft Statute for such a tribunal, 1993 (33 I.L.M. 258), which has received tentative approval from the General Assembly and is to be finalised in June 1998.
19. The S.S. Lotus Case (France v. Turkey), (1927) (A/10) 18, at 28; 2 World Court Reports 19, 44 (M.O. Hudson ed., 1934).
20. Deferral Decision, 29 May 1996, DOC. IT-96-22-D.
21. 21 IT-94-1-T, 2 October 1955, 35 I.L.M. 32, para. 83.
22. There is no definition in international law of what is meant by "civilized nations". This term, which appears in Art. 38 of the I.C.J. Statute, is a legacy of the nineteenth century imperialist era, and would today be considered synonymous with "independent".
23. Para. 70.
24. This comment ignores the length of time that may exist between the actual cessation of hostilities and the general "conclusion of peace" if what is envisaged is a peace treaty; see, e.g., Bordier v. Lorilleux (1960) (France, Cour de Cassation), 40 I.L.R. 434.
25. L.C. Green, "The Maxim Nullum Crimen Sine Lege and the Eichmann Trial", 38 Brit. Y.B. Int'l L. 457 (1962).
26. Art.L
27. 82 U.N.T.S. 280, Art. 6(c).
28. E. Schwelb, "Crimes against Humanity", 23 Brit. Y B Int'l L. 178, at 205 (1946).
29. Y. Dinstein, "Crimes Against Humanity", in J. Makarczyk, Theory of InternationalLaw at the Threshold of the 21st Century 891 (1997).
30. The Laws of Armed Conflict 923 (D. Schindler & J. Toman eds., 3rd ed., 1988);
31. 30 1961/1962, 36 I.L.R. 18, at 34, 39 (District Court), ibid. 277, 304 (Supreme Court).
32. UN DOC/S/1994/1125, paras. 114-17.
33. The quotation from the Yugoslav Commission's Report must have come from the Interim Report, since in the wording cited it does not appear in that Commission's Final Report, UN DOC/S/1994/674, but it forms a summary of paras. 84-86 of the Final Report.
34. In fact, the Nuremberg Tribunal had no option but to operate in this manner since this restrictive meaning of 'crimes against humanity' was set in its constituent Charter.
35. L.C. Green, "International Law and the Control of Barbarism", in The InternationalLaw andPolicy of Human Welfare 239 (R.St.J. Macdonald, D. Johnston & G. Morris eds., 1978);
36. L.C. Green, "The Role of Law in Establishing Norms of International Behaviour", 17 Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 149 (1987).
37. See Dinstein, supra note 28.
38. L.C. Green, "The Problems of a Wartime International Lawyer", for discussion of problems concerning the Indian National Army in World War II, 2 Pace YB. Int'l L 93-127 (1989).
39. UN DOC/S/RES/819 (1993); see alsoRes. 824 & 836.
40. Case No. IT-95-5,-R61 and No. IT-95-18-R61 11 July 1996 (Karadzic and Mladic Rule 61).
41. Cameron, The Peleus Trial (1945),
42. 40 Supra note 38, at 40, 51, 52.
43. 41 This is typical of the arguments put forward by those accused of war crimes, see, e.g., defence of Captain Erich Priebke, charged with active participation in the 1944 Ardeatine Caves massacre, who pleaded before an Italian military court: " ... anyone who refused to take part would have faced an SS tribunal. My death and the persecution of my family would not have saved those executed. We protested but there was nothing we could do. I had to shoot once at the beginning and then a second time.... All the officers were made to shoot twice to establish discipline"', The Times (London), 23 July 1997.
44. See Schindler/ Toman, supra note 29.
45. Prosecutor's Brief on Aggravating and Mitigating Factors, Case No. IT-96-22-T, I I November 1996, 3, 4, 7.
46. Adopted 11 February 1946 and amended, UN Doc. IT32.
47. Govt. of Yugoslavia, Official Gazette, No. 44/76.
48. Y. Dinstein, The Defence of 'Obedience to Superior Orders 'in International Law (1965);
49. L.C. Green, SuperiorOrders in Nationaland InternationalLaw (1976); N. Keijzer, Military Obedience (1978).
50. Judgment, paras. 18-20.
51. Para. 28.
52. Paras. 31-32.
53. Para. 35 (italics added).
54. Para. 46.
55. 52 Para. 54 (italics added).
56. Rule O1(B.ii).
57. Judgment, paras. 55-56.
58. 1st Ann. Rep. of the Tribunal, DOC. A/19/342.
59. The Times (London), 12 August 1997.
60. Judgment, para. 62.
61. 36 I.L.R. 257, at 341 (1968).
62. Judgment, para. 64.
63. Para. 65.
64. Para. 66.
65. Para. 83, citing DOCS. IT-95-5-R61 & IT-95-18-R61.
66. Para. 73.
67. Italics added.
68. Judgment, para. 87.
69. It is perhaps a little strange, particularly in a criminal process of such gravity, for the Chamber to have thus, somewhat cavalierly, accepted such public notoriety as a matter of decisive judicial knowledge to be applied against the accused.
70. Para. 91.
71. 69 Para. 111.
72. 23 December 1996, Case IT-96-22-A.
73. Prosecutor v. Drazen Erdemovic, Appeals Chamber Judgment, IT-96-22A,7, 7 October 1997, paras. 88, 90-91.
74. The distributed English text runs to 58 typewritten pages.
75. Rule 55 (B) "A warrant for the arrest of the accused and an order for his surrender to the Tribunal shall be transmitted ... to the national authorities of the State in whose territory .... the accused ... was last known to be .... Rule 56 "The State to which a warrant of arrest or a transfer order for a witness is transmitted shall act promptly ... to ensure ... effective execution thereof...". Statute, Art. 29 (2) "States shall comply ... with any request for assistance or an order issued by a Trial Chamber, including ... (d) the surrender or the transfer of the accused to the International Tribunal".
76. Prosecutor v. Dusko Tadic, IT-94-1-T, 10 August 1995.
77. Paras. 5-8, 19 ,21-24.
78. It would seem that the Trial Chamber did not consider the Nuremberg Tribunal, created in the name of the United Nations - i.e., the coalition confronting the European Axis - as acting on behalf of the "international community".
79. Lockerbie Aerial Incident (Libyan Arab Jamahariya v. U.K., U.S.), [1992] I.C.J. Rep. 3; [1992] LC.J. Rep. 114.
80. Paras. 32, 36.
81. Paras. 41-42, 44.
82. Para. 52.
83. Paras. 60-74.
84. Green, supra note 25.
85. Military and Paramilitary Activities (Nicaragua v. U.S.) (Merits), [1986] I.C.J. Rep. 4.
86. Paras. 78-83.
87. 85 See, however, Judgment, H.M.S.O. Cmd. 6964 (1946), 60-64. See also Schwelb, supra note 28.
88. 1 International Law 996 (R. Jennings & A. Watts eds., 9th ed., 1992) - the Trial Chamber, para. 81, cites the wrong page.
89. Para. 82.
90. L.C. Green, "Armed Conflict, War and Self-Defence", 6 Archiv des Volkerrechts 387 (1957).
91. Text to note 16 above.
92. Paras. 91, 143.
93. Para. 94.
94. The Indictment against Tadic appears as App. A of the Opinion and Judgment of the Trial Chamber, 7 May 1997. Excerpts from this Judgment are reproduced in 36 I.L.M. 908. The extracts here used are taken from the typewritten version issued by the Tribunal.
95. 14 July 1997, para. 8.
96. See Art. VI.
97. Para. 568,.
98. 96 Paras. 693, 578-79.
99. Appeals Chamber Decision, para. 81.
100. This was the name adopted by the "independent" Bosnian Serb "Republic".
101. 35 I.L.M. 75, Annexes.
102. Paras. 584-607.
103. L.C. Green, "Southern Rhodesian Independence", 14 Archiv des Volkerrechts 155 (1969).
104. New York Times, 20 September 1997.
105. Rule 53 (B).
106. Prosecutor's Response to the Defence Motion for Release, 21 July 1997, case No.IT-95-13a-PT; the Defence Motion was submitted on 7 July 1997.
107. The Times (London), 13 September 1997.