{"title":"National Courts Step Up","authors":"Beth van Schaack","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055967.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055967.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Following the discussion of the options for invoking the International Criminal Court (ICC) or creating a new international institution to address the crimes in Syria, chapter 7 explores the potential for domestic courts to fill this impunity gap. Principles of complementarity, including the incorporation of international crimes into the world’s domestic penal codes, have contributed to the emergence of more empowered and aggressive domestic courts when it comes to the prosecution of grave crimes of international concern. The chapter demonstrates the way in which classic principles of domestic criminal jurisdiction—territoriality, effects, nationality (active and passive), protective, and universal jurisdiction—could all be, and are all being, activated to address the presence of perpetrators and victims found outside the Syrian battlespace. This chapter offers a taxonomy of the criminal cases proceeding to date in domestic courts around the world, some involving the state’s own nationals, some involving perpetrators found within the territorial state, and some proceeding in various ways while the defendant is still in absentia. This chapter offers explanations for the developments afoot within states—and the European Union in particular—that have enabled domestic courts to emerge as the most promising venue for justice. While compiling a number of overarching observations about this collection of cases, the chapter also acknowledges their inherent limitations, in general and when it comes to Syria in particular, as well as sources of resistance to the expansion of these forms of extraterritorial jurisdiction.","PeriodicalId":278187,"journal":{"name":"Imagining Justice for Syria","volume":"15 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132837022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conclusion","authors":"Beth van Schaack","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055967.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055967.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"The book’s conclusion offers a number of overarching observations about the prospects of justice for Syria and highlights a few bright spots on an otherwise rather bleak landscape. These grounds for cautious optimism include the fact that we now have a robust and comprehensive international jus puniendi of international crimes, even if we lack sufficient institutions in which to apply it. Although the repeat failures of the U.N. Security Council have eroded our faith in the post–World War II system of collective security, other multilateral, regional, and domestic institutions have—to a certain extent—stepped in to fill the breach. This multilateral paralysis has thus spurred creative thinking about new jurisdictional theories, generated multiple and varied institutional proposals, and re-enlivened the principle of universal jurisdiction after a period of decline. The enhanced sophistication of international crimes documentation ensures that future transitional justice efforts will have the evidence needed to hold those most responsible for abuses to account. While the many accountability proposals have yet to bear fruit, it is now clear that they suffer from no legal impediments; all that is needed is the political will and resources to bring them to fruition. All of these developments are the work of an epistemic community of justice entrepreneurs—representing multilateral institutions, sovereign nations, and global civil society—who refuse to take “no” for an answer.","PeriodicalId":278187,"journal":{"name":"Imagining Justice for Syria","volume":"105 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114535500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transitional Justice without Transition","authors":"Beth van Schaack","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055967.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055967.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"The penultimate chapter offers a discussion of the prospects for a genuine transitional justice process in Syria. Chapter 10 begins with a short history of the development of the archetypal tools within the transitional justice toolkit—criminal accountability, truth commissions, reparations, amnesties, lustration, institutional reform, and guarantees of nonrecurrence—and the way in which transitional justice efforts have become increasingly internationalized. This enhanced involvement of the international community in promoting transitional justice reflects the belief—premised on historical case studies and emerging empirical research—that societies in transition must address the crimes of the past in some capacity or risk their repetition. The chapter surveys the most recent research testing these claims, which has benefited from the creation of a number of new databases gleaned from states in transition. The chapter then describes ways in which the international community has tried to prepare for a future transitional justice process in Syria even in the absence of a political transition, including by training Syrian advocates, surveying Syrian communities to understand their knowledge of transitional justice and preferences for Syria, promoting psychosocial rehabilitation and solidarity among victims, and preparing for truth-telling exercises and institutional reform measures. The conclusion suggests ways in which the international community could still promote some form of transitional justice as part of the reconstruction process, even if Assad remains in power, which seems increasingly likely.","PeriodicalId":278187,"journal":{"name":"Imagining Justice for Syria","volume":"3 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133007527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}