Victims have often been the justification of international criminal trials, but only recently allowed to participate in proceedings. With the provision of victim participation at the International Criminal Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia there is a growing literature in international criminal justice exploring the role of victims in such proceedings. This article provides an empirical contribution to this literature, drawing from fieldwork conducted in Uganda and Cambodia to examine the role of legal representatives in furthering victims' rights and interests within international criminal courts. The article analyses the concepts of victim agency and voice and the practice of representation within the courts, assessing the extent to which victims are able to exercise agency and voice through representation. It argues that victims are having their agency limited by restrictions placed on their ability to choose representatives, and that the introduction of common representation has collectivised victims' voices, leading to disputes surrounding who may legitimately represent victims.
This paper considers the possibilities and challenges facing international criminal law as a means of meaningfully responding to environmental destruction. Noting the interconnections between environmental destruction and the causes, conduct and impacts of mass violence, scholars have explored multiple ways in which international criminal law might be better equipped to respond to such harms. These have ranged from using existing provisions to introducing a new crime against the environment. This paper examines the evolution of these approaches and considers the capacity of international criminal law to respond to environmental destruction. In light of the challenges associated with introducing a new crime, it focuses on the possibilities associated with 'greening' the Rome Statute. Building on this approach, the paper considers whether the reparation framework adopted by the ICC offers an opportunity to meaningfully respond to environmental destruction and related human rights violations. It argues that there are three main ways in which this might be done: (i) by introducing the concept of 'eco-sensitivity' to reparations designed to respond to other anthropocentric harms; (ii) by awarding reparations that explicitly recognise the harm caused by environmental destruction when possible; and (iii) by exploring the possibilities of an environmental approach towards 'transformative reparations'.
This paper considers the actors and contexts which frame victimhood within transitional justice mechanisms, using the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as a case study. Drawing on critical victimology's concern with the cultural, political and legal construction of victimhood, this paper explores how heterogeneous legal and political elites can create layers of exclusion, shaping which victims are seen, and which are unseen, within official responses to atrocity. While the politics of victimhood in domestic and transitional contexts has been acknowledged within the literature, this paper's actor-oriented approach contributes a thicker understanding of how 'worthy' victims are selected from all those who have suffered from mass atrocity. In particular, it considers how political compromises, jurisdictional limits, prosecutorial choices, and the creation of a civil party participation system have shaped victim visibility within the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
This article draws on the authors' experience of introducing a student-led legal podcast in their law school in September 2017 to explore creative podcasting's potential as a tool of legal knowledge and skill development. Drawing on the authors' observations as the coordinators of the podcast, as well as a survey conducted amongst student participants, it considers the value of creative podcasting as a means of enhancing legal knowledge, aiding skills development, and fostering a feeling of collaboration and community. The article also reflects on the practical challenges associated with running a project of this type outside the school's curriculum, focusing particularly on the challenge of encouraging student buy-in.
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