Book Symposium: The Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, by Charles Jalloh

Another great symposium is lined up for this and next week discussing Charles Jalloh’s monograph, The Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (Cambridge, 2020). From the publisher:

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.

A number of fantastic contributions are lined up, starting with Jalloh’s introduction and a two-part post from Stephen Rapp later today. The rest of the week will feature posts from Simon Meisenberg, Alpha Sesay, Mark A. Drumbl, Michael Kanu, Margaret M. deGuzman, Stuart Ford, Tamara Cummings-John and Valerie Oosterveld. Next week, we have the pleasure of hosting contributions from Leila Nadya Sadat, William Schabas, Linda Carter and Joseph Rikhof before Jalloh closes out the symposium with responses to the authors.

Please feel free to follow the discussion and weigh in in the comments.