Special Courts for Special Crimes Sample Clauses

Special Courts for Special Crimes. Exceptionalism—treating or giving something the status of being unique or special—has both positive and negative connotations in the context of criminal justice. Understood as the former, seeking criminal accountability for mass violence has typically required exceptional responses by the international community. Notable examples include the establishment of international ad hoc and/or hybrid tribunals, as well as the creation of “high risk courts” or even the exercise of military jurisdiction.631 Exceptionalism may also be justified as an antidote: the failures of the “ordinary” criminal justice system necessitate the establishment of independent structures or, indeed, supra-national jurisdiction. As articulated by Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx, former chair of ICJ-Kenya, in his testimony before the Waki Commission: We find that depending on who is heading a particular unit within the security agencies – then just by looking at him or by knowing what his name is in 90% of the cases you will be able to know what kind of decision he would make with regard to which particular community or you will be able to know whether he will turn a blind eye to something that is happening. So the issue of getting people who are not unduly affected by the politics behind the violence coming to help us, I think that … is very important.632 Xxxxxxx’s testimony illustrates the need for erecting mechanisms that function outside the normal structures of state. The creation of specialized institutions, personnel, and regulations can help inoculate transitional justice measures from the corrosive influence of a compromised justice sector but, more ambitiously, they also hold the potential to positively influence the development of the rule of law domestically.633 Indeed, it was on this basis that the UN’s “mapping” report recommended that a special mechanism in the 629 See, e.g., Xxxx Xxxxxxxxx, “Justice on the Ground: Can International Criminal Courts Strengthen Domestic Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Societies,” Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 1 (2009), 87-97; Xxxxxx Xxxxxx and Xxxx Xxxxxx, “A hopeful future for Kenya,” Los Angeles Times (7 June 2010) (“A fair and effective [domestic] tribunal will open the way to an independent judiciary, which is a cornerstone of the proposed constitution.”). 630 On “demonstration effect,” see Xxxx Xxxxxxxxx, Xxxxx Xxxxxxx and Xxxx Xxxxxx, Can Might Make Rights? Building the Rule of Law After Military Interventions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2...