PhD studies in human rights: Piracy, the Crime of Crimes?

Monday, 2 November 2009

Piracy, the Crime of Crimes?

There is a lot of talk about adding some new crimes to the subject matter jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, or about setting up some new tribunal to deal with the scourge of piracy. I agree with Professor Antonio Cassese, who writes in his book International Criminal Law that piracy is not an international crime, in the sense that it 'was (and is) not punished for the sake of protecting a community value...' (2nd ed., p. 12, italics in the original). Piracy should not be lumped with the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. We do this intuitively when we romanticize pirates, something we do not do with génocidaires. I had to wait until Halloween to make this point, so that I could run a photo of my grandson Thomas. Don't expect him to dress up as Eichmann next year, because he reads his granddad's blog (he's not ready for Cassese for a few more years, I'm afraid)!

5 comments:

Deborah said...: Professor,
Delighted with the insight AND the picture!
Deborah; 3 November 2009 at 16:52
Luís Paulo said...: I completely agree with you and Cassese that Piracy is not an international crime properly speaking. Congratulations for your grandson and for this blog, I really enjoy reading your posts!; 4 November 2009 at 17:02
Dov Jacobs said...: on the other hand, Cassese should read over his own work before defending the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is only competent to try national crimes! Isn't that a total misuse of international justice?; 6 November 2009 at 23:27
Roger Derham said...: Prof,
In 67 BCE the Gabinian Law was enacted to eradicate piracy in what was then the known 'world'. I touched on this and the 'local' nature of piracy in a blog of the 26th April at http://deworde.blogspot.com.
Best Wishes,
Roger Derham; 9 November 2009 at 22:11
Dez said...: Professor,

Thank you for the comments regarding the comparison of genocide and piracy.

It is an hyperbolic error for one to think these two and relate them to mass killing and human rights abuse.

I was at the genocide studies in Toronto last summer where I learned many things about genocide.

I was also fortunate to listen to your lectures during that period. I am currently taking a class titled "The problem of Genocide" and I want to inform you that I am using your lectures and notes because they are very useful.

Keep up the god work!

Dez Kamara (Sierra Leonean in Canada); 12 November 2009 at 15:57

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William A. Schabas is professor of international law at Middlesex University in London. He is also professor of international criminal law and human rights at Leiden University, emeritus professor human rights law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights of the National University of Ireland Galway, and an honorary professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in Beijing and Wuhan University. He is the author of more than 20 books and 300 journal articles, on such subjects as the abolition of capital punishment, genocide and the international criminal tribunals. Professor Schabas was a member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in Human Rights and president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. He serves as president of the Irish Branch of the International Law Association chair of the Institute for International Criminal Investigation. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Here is the full c.v.

Dr Yvonne McDermott is Senior Lecturer in Law at Bangor University, UK, where she is also Director of Teaching and Learning and Co-Director of the Bangor Centre for International Law. Yvonne is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway (B. Corp. Law, LL.B.), Leiden University (LL.M. cum laude) and the Irish Centre for Human Rights (Ph.D.). Her research focuses on fair trial rights, international criminal procedure and international criminal law. She is the author of Fairness in International Criminal Trials (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Niamh Hayes has been the Head of Office for the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI) in The Hague since September 2012. She is about to complete her Ph.D. on the investigation and prosecution of sexual violence by international criminal tribunals at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway. She previously worked for Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice as a legal consultant, and as an intern for the defence at the ICTY in the Karadzic case. She has lectured on international criminal law and international law at Trinity College Dublin and, along with Prof. William Schabas and Dr. Yvonne McDermott, is a co-editor of The Ashgate Research Companion to International Criminal Law: Critical Perspectives (Ashgate, 2013). She is the author of over 45 case reports for the Oxford Reports on International Criminal Law and has published numerous articles and book chapters on the investigation and prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence as international crimes.

Joseph Powderly is Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University. Between September 2008 and January 2010, he was a Doctoral Fellow/Researcher at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, where he worked, among other projects, on a Irish Government-funded investigation and report into the possible perpetration of crimes against humanity against the Rohingya people of North Rakhine State, Burma/Myanmar. He is currently in the process of completing his doctoral research which looks at the impact of theories of judicial interpretation on the development of international criminal and international humanitarian law. The central thesis aims to identify and analyze the potential emergence of a specific theory of interpretation within the sphere of judicial creativity. Along with Dr. Shane Darcy of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, he is co-editor of and contributor to the edited collection Judicial Creativity in International Criminal Tribunals which was published by Oxford University Press in 2010. He has written over 80 case-reports for the Oxford Reports on International Criminal Law, as well as numerous book chapters and academic articles on topics ranging from the principle of complementarity to Irish involvement in the drafting of the Geneva Conventions. In December 2010, he was appointed Managing Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Criminal Law Forum. His research interests while focusing on international criminal and international humanitarian law also include topics such as the history of international law and freedom of expression.

PhD studies in human rights

Monday, 2 November 2009

Piracy, the Crime of Crimes?

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