The Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone

Explores how the first treaty-based UN international tribunal's judges innovatively applied the law to perpetrators of international crimes in one of the worst conflicts in recent history.

Charles C. Jalloh (Author)

9781107178311, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 July 2020

250 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.9 cm, 0.78 kg

'This book is one that is worth the attention of readers well beyond the study of the Sierra Leone civil war and its aftermath. It is particularly worthwhile for scholars and practitioners in court administration, whose appraisal and understanding of the judicial branch of government in our own respective countries can be greatly enriched by studying the progress of efforts to promote the growth of international criminal law.' David C. Steelman, The International Journal for Court Administration

This important book considers whether the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), which was established jointly through an unprecedented bilateral treaty between the United Nations (UN) and Sierra Leone in 2002, has made jurisprudential contributions to the development of the nascent and still unsettled field of international criminal law. A leading authority on the application of international criminal justice in Africa, Charles Jalloh argues that the SCSL, as an innovative hybrid international penal tribunal, made useful jurisprudential additions on key legal questions concerning greatest responsibility jurisdiction, the war crime of child recruitment, forced marriage as a crime against humanity, amnesty, immunity and the relationship between truth commissions and criminal courts. He demonstrates that some of the SCSL case law broke new ground, and in so doing, bequeathed a 'legal legacy' that remains vital to the ongoing global fight against impunity for atrocity crimes and to the continued development of modern international criminal law.

Preface and acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. The sierra leone conflict
3. The establishment of the special court for sierra leone
4. The special court's jurisdiction, organization and trials
5. Greatest responsibility personal jurisdiction
6. Forced marriage as a crime against humanity
7. Child recruitment as a war crime
8. Head of state immunity
9. Amnesties
10. Special courts and truth commissions
11. Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography/Sources Reviewed
Index.

Subject Areas: Criminal justice law [LNFB], Criminal law & procedure [LNF], Legal system: law of contempt [LNAA2], Courts & procedure [LNAA], International humanitarian law [LBBS], Legal history [LAZ], Criminology: legal aspects [LAR], Law [L], Armed conflict [JPWS]