The Standard for Determining Intent to Commit Genocide
by Julian Ku
As Kevin notes, the ICC Appeals Chamber has overruled the Pre-Trial Chamber on the question of whether Sudan’s President Bashir can be charged with genocide. In a very useful note, Chile Eboe-Osuji points out here that the Appeals Chamber did not in fact provide the Pre-Trial Chamber with guidance on what standard it should adopt to determine whether there was sufficient evidence of the “intent” to commit genocide to issue an arrest warrant. As he puts it,
Curiously, though, the Appeals Chamber declined to give guidance to the Pre-Trial Chamber as to the correct applicable standard for the issuance of a warrant of arrest. Rather, the Appeals Chamber left it up to the Pre-Trial Chamber to devise the correct standard, as they reconsidered the case. This is not very helpful.
Read the whole post to see his best guess as to what the standard will be. I would be curious to see if folks have different views than his.
Related Posts
- March 30, 2010 -- Should the ICC Oppose Sudan’s Election?
- February 13, 2010 -- The Elephant in the ICC’s Case Against Bashir: Head of State Immunity
- October 19, 2009 -- The Obama Strategy on Sudan: How to Downplay the ICC
- August 30, 2010 -- NYT’s Kristof: Obama’s Sudan Policy is a Failure
- May 25, 2010 -- I Bravely Defend Obama’s Sudan Policy Against Mia Farrow
- April 28, 2010 -- The ICC Begins to Fade in Importance in Sudan
- April 24, 2010 -- The Emerging Consensus on U.S. Policy Toward the ICC: CFR Issues Report on Kampala
- April 23, 2010 -- ICC Prosecutor Wants Security Council Action on Sudan
- April 2, 2010 -- A Powerful Dissenting Opinion on the ICC’s Decision to Authorize an Investigation into Kenya
- October 16, 2009 -- Obama Will “Engage” on Sudan (And Ignore the ICC)
- July 18, 2008 -- EU Promises to Enforce ICC Arrest Warrants
- July 16, 2008 -- The Real Reason China Opposes Indicting Bashir
- July 15, 2008 -- The ICC Seeks Regime Change in Sudan
- July 14, 2008 -- The ICC Is Not the Security Council’s Plaything
- July 14, 2008 -- The Case for Indicting Bashir
- July 11, 2008 -- ICC Prosecutor To Charge Sudan’s President with Genocide
February 4th, 2010 - 9:27 AM EDT | Trackback Link |
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As I point out in my own commentary, the Appeals Chamber has actually made a habit of doing half the job: reversing and remanding, but giving very little guidance as to what the actual “correct” legal approach should have been taken in the first place.
I don’t know what the exact test should be, but there is clearly some hairsplitting semantic debate going on with the various tests to be applied. Let’s just take “the reasonable grounds” at the arrest warrant phase, and the “substantial grounds” at the confirmation phase. what’s the actual difference? shouldn’t the evidence brought to the judge for the arrest warrant be substantial? shouldn’t the evidence brought to the judge for the confirmation be reasonable?
at 5:31 am EST Dov Jacobs