International Criminal Law . Starting Places. American Society of International Law's Research Guide on International Criminal Law provides information on the major electronic sources for researching international and transnational crime, with links to tribunals, organizations, and agencies. Chapter VI (A) is devoted to war crimes and human rights violations. The ASIL Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) database on International Criminal Law includes links to primary documents and recommended websites. The Frederick K. Cox International Law Center War Crimes Research Portal contains links to international humanitarian law websites along with bibliographies and research guides. International Criminal Law: A Selective Resource Guide provides a guide to basic research materials, in both print and electronic formats, and also includes a section specifically on crimes against humanity and human rights issues; unfortunately, it's a bit out- of- date. NYU's Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases: International Criminal Law provides links to international criminal law resources on the web. The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice (Antonio Cassese, ed.) (Ref. K5. 30. 1 . O9. 4 2. The War Crimes Project at New England School of Law includes links to war crimes materials on the Internet. For a list of basic reference sources for international law, see the Goodson Law Library's International Law Research Guide. II. United Nations Documents. You may be using a lot of UN documents in your research. Many documents, especially recent ones, are available on the UN website. You can find International Court of Justice documents on the ICJ website and in Westlaw (INT- ICJ database). The Goodson Law Library UN Research Guide provides in- depth advice on finding UN documents. The UN International Law Web Page includes links to UN tribunals (see below) and other UN agencies concerned with international law issues (such as the International Law Commission). III. Treaties. United Nations Treaty Collection includes both texts of treaties (United Nations Treaty Series) and status information, updated weekly (Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary- General). The American Society of International Law's Research Guide on International Criminal Law and LLRX's International Criminal Law: A Selective Resource Guide include links to other international criminal law treaties. For more advice on treaty research, see the Goodson Law Library Treaties Research Guide. International Criminal Law Deskbook (John P. Craig Barker, eds.) (K5. I5. 8 2. 00. 6) is a collection of core international criminal law instruments with commentary and an outline of their legislative histories. IV. International Tribunals. Amy Burchfield's research guide International Criminal Courts for the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone: A Guide to Online and Print Resources and SMU's International Criminal Courts Research Guide provide useful general research advice. The Coalition for the ICC Home Page on the International Criminal Court is a useful site maintained by an NGO. For background on this court, see Leila Nadya Sadat, The International Criminal Court Treaty Enters into Force (ASIL Insights, April 2. International Criminal Law Database & Commentary provides searchable texts of the case law from the International Criminal Court and a commentary to the Rome Statute. Eyes on the ICC (Periodicals) is an interdisciplinary journal that analyses issues related to the ICC. An Introduction to the International Criminal Court (3rd ed.)(KZ6. S3. 3 2. 00. 7) is a good overview of the workings of the Court. The Annotated Digest of the International Criminal Court (KZ6. A4. 8) provides subject access to ICC jurisprudence. A list of international agreements regarding the surrender of U. S. Yale University's Cambodian Genocide Program is an excellent resource for information about the tribunal. Tribunal P. Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals (KZ6. A5. 5 1. 99. 9) includes the texts of selected decisions (including concurrences and dissents) from 1. Basic Documents and Case Law, 1. CD- ROM that includes some documents not available on the website (e. ICTR documents (judgments, decisions, orders, and indictments) are also available on Westlaw (INT- ICTR database). Judicial Reports = Recueils judiciaires (KZ1. I5. 8) reports decisions from 1. The ICTY law review, Judicial Supplement, offers summaries of important decisions, orders and judgments from 1. The Appeals Chamber Case- Law Research Tool provides summaries of judgments by the ICTY Appeals Chamber since July 2. Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals (KZ6. News and advice for solicitor advocates from the Law Society on civil, family and criminal advocacy issues. Criminal Law and Procedure 01 - Introduction Page 3 of 19 Rush: A body of rules and statutes that defines conduct prohibited by the government because it threatens and harms public safety and welfare and that. Criminal law, the body of law that defines criminal offenses, regulates the apprehension, charging, and trial of suspected persons, and fixes penalties and modes of. The Criminal Code Of The Russian Federation, Russian Criminal Code, IL Attorney, Attorney in California, Texas Attorneys, TX Lawyers, Attorney in Texas. ContentsOverviewElements of a CrimeTypes of CrimesLiability for AccomplicesDefensesAdditional SourcesOverviewCriminal Law, as distinguished from civ. A5. 5 1. 99. 9) includes the texts of selected decisions (including concurrences and dissents) from 1. ICTY documents (including judgments, decisions, orders, indictments, and transcripts) are also available in Westlaw (INT- ICTY- ALL database). Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals (KZ6. A5. 5 1. 99. 9) includes the texts of selected decisions (including concurrences and dissents) from 2. Digest of Jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, 2. KZ1. 20. 8. S5. 3 L3. For background on this court, see The Special Court for Sierra Leone (ASIL Insights, October 2. Michael P. Scharf. The website of the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (PICT) has organized in one place news about the activities of international courts and tribunals, archives of case law, etc. William A. Schabas, The UN International Criminal Tribunals : The Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone (KZ1. A1. 2 S3. 4 2. 00. V. Current Awareness. AIDP Blog is the official blog of the American National Section of L'Association Internationale de Droit Penal (The International Association of Penal Law). The ASIL Insights series of short articles on current international law topics includes several essays on international criminal law. Hague Justice Portal provides access to the activities of the international courts and organizations located in The Hague, including the ICTY and the ICC. International Enforcement Law Reporter (Periodicals and Lexis & Westlaw) is a monthly newsletter that includes coverage of issues such as international human rights and the law of war. War Crimes Prosecution Watch is a bi- weekly e- newsletter that collects documents and articles concerning the investigation and prosecution of war crimes. The websites of organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are also good sources of current information. VI. Finding Books and Journal Articles. Of course, there are many books and articles on international criminal law; useful recent works include. Ilias Bantekas, International Criminal Law (K5. B3. 6 2. 01. 0). Cherif Bassiouni, Introduction to International Criminal Law (K5. B3. 69 2. 00. 3). Cherif Bassiouni, ed.), 3d ed. You can find out if these books are in the Law Library (and most, if not all of them, will be) by searching the library catalog by author or title. You can find more books searching with subject headings such as International Offenses, Crimes Against Humanity, Criminal Liability (International Law), Criminal Procedure (International Law), Criminal Jurisdiction, Genocide, Human Rights and War Crimes. You can find articles in law reviews by searching with the same subject headings (and by keyword, author, and title as well) in the index Legal. Trac. This index is also available in Westlaw, as the LRI database (look under . The Index to Legal Periodicals includes links to the full text of some articles. Many useful databases for related disciplines, such as political science and international relations, are available from the Duke Libraries Research Databases page. English criminal law - Wikipedia. English criminal law refers to the body of law in the jurisdiction of England and Wales which deals with crimes and their consequences, and which is complementary to the civil law of England and Wales. Criminal acts are considered offences against the whole of a community. The state, in addition to certain international organizations, has responsibility for crime prevention, for bringing the culprits to justice, and for dealing with convicted offenders. The police, the criminal courts and prisons are all publicly funded services, though the main focus of criminal law concerns the role of the courts, how they apply criminal statutes and common law, and why some forms of behaviour are considered criminal. The English legal system is common within other Commonwealth states, notably Australia, although government legislative practices and rare legal procedures, example being court hierarchy, may differ to both a significant and minor extent. The fundamentals of a crime are known as the actus reus and the mens rea. These two Latin terms mean . The traditional view is that moral culpability requires that one should have recognized or intended that one was acting wrongly. Defences exist to some crimes. A person who is accused may in certain circumstances plead they are insane and did not understand what they were doing, that they were not in control of their bodies, they were intoxicated, mistaken about what they were doing, acted in self defence, acted under duress or out of necessity, or were provoked. These are issues to be raised at trial, for which there are detailed rules of evidence and procedure to be followed. History. Many criminal offences are common law offences rather being specified in legislation. In 1. 98. 0, a Committee of JUSTICE said that, upon conducting a search, they found over 7,2. In Latin this is called the actus reus and the mens rea. In many crimes however, there is no necessity of showing criminal intention, which is why the term . It is usually the application or threat of unlawful force, though exceptionally an omission or failure to act can result in liability. Simple examples might be A hitting B with a stick, or X pushing Y down a water well. These are guilty acts and the unlawful application or force. Alternatively, one may have a pre- existing duty to another person and by deliberately not performing it, one commits a crime. For instance, not giving food is an omission rather than an act, but as a parent one has a duty to feed one's children. Pre- existing duties can arise also through contract. He failed to take action, and after the building had burned down, he was convicted of arson. He failed to correct the dangerous situation he created, as he was duty bound to do. On the other hand, it was held in the U. K. Since discontinuation of power is not a voluntary act, not grossly negligent, and is in the patient's best interests, no crime takes place. The legal definition of . This is known as the thin skull rule. It could be broken by the intervening act (novus actus interveniens) of a third party, the victim's own conduct. A mistake in medical treatment usually will not break the chain, unless the mistakes are in themselves . But despite this suicidal behavior, the attacker was still held fully responsible for murder. Mens rea. It is the mental element of committing a crime and establishes the element of intent. Together with an actus reus, mens rea forms the bedrock of criminal law, although strict liability offenses have encroached on this notion. A guilty mind means intending to do that which harms someone. Intention under criminal law is separate from a person's motive. Although death was certain and the father should have realized, he did not in the least desire that his son be killed or harmed. The English House of Lords sentenced him for manslaughter, but not murder. For instance if C tears a gas meter from a wall to get the money inside, and knows this will let flammable gas escape into a neighbor's house, he could be liable for poisoning. The doctrine of transferred malice means, for instance, that if a man strikes another with his belt, but the belt bounces off and hits a nearby woman, the man is guilty of battery toward her. For instance, in R v Church. Church had a fight with a woman which rendered her unconscious. He attempted to revive her, but gave up, believing her to be dead. He threw her, still alive, in a nearby river, where she drowned. The court held that Mr. Church was not guilty of murder (because he did not ever desire to kill her), but was guilty of manslaughter. In this manner, it does not matter when a guilty mind and act coincide, as long as at some point they do. For example, it might be sufficient to show that a defendant acted negligently, rather than intentionally or recklessly. In offences of absolute liability, other than the prohibited act, it may not be necessary to show anything at all, even if the defendant would not normally be perceived to be at fault. England and Wales has strict liability offences, which criminalize behavior without the need to show a criminal mens rea. Most strict liability offences are created by statute, and often they are the result of ambiguous drafting. They are usually regulatory in nature, where the result of breach could have particularly harmful results. An example is drunk driving. Criminal offences. There are general defences. Insanity, automatism, mistake and self defence operate as defences to any offence. Inadvertence due to intoxication is a defence to all offences requiring proof of basic intent if the intoxication is involuntary, and in cases where the risk would not have been obvious to a reasonable and sober person and/or the defendant, if it is voluntary, and to offences that require proof of a specific intent. Duress and necessity operate as a defence to all crimes except murder, attempted murder and some forms of treason. Marital coercion is a defence to all crimes except treason and murder. The law has therefore been reformed in many ways. The requirements are usually more lax, for instance, being . See the Infanticide Act 1. Coroners and Justice Act 2. Consent. This is of particular relevance to offences against the person and against property. Insanity. An old case which lays down typical rules on insanity is M'Naghten's case. He wanted to shoot and kill Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, but got Peel's secretary in the back instead. Mr M'Naghten was found to be insane, and instead of prison, put in a mental hospital. The case produced the rules that a person is presumed to be sane and responsible, unless it is shown that (1) he was laboring under such a defect of reason (2) from disease of the mind (3) as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong. These elements must be proven present on the balance of probabilities. He was in fact mentally ill, but as he recognized what he did and that it was wrong by saying to police . If someone raises this defence, then it is for the prosecution to disprove. Automatismic actions can be a product of insanity, or not. One may suddenly fall ill, into a dream like state as a result of post traumatic stress. But automatism is no defence to other crimes (i. Only where the defendant does not know his actions will lead to an automatismic state where he could harm something can self- induced automatism be a defence to these crimes. For example, in R v Hardie. She encouraged him to take them, to make him feel better. But he got angry and set fire to the wardrobe. It was held that he should not be convicted of arson because he expected the Valium to calm him down, and this was its normal effect. Intoxication. In other words, a defendant may have been so drunk, or drugged, that he was incapable of forming the criminal intention required. So for instance, in R v Sheehan and Moore two viciously drunken scoundrels threw petrol on a tramp and set fire to him. They got off for murder, but still went down for manslaughter, since that is a crime of basic intent. Of course, it can well be the case that someone is not drunk enough to support any intoxication defence at all. So where a blackmailer drugged a man's coffee, invited him to abuse a 1. Here, intoxication operated as a defence because Mr Lipman was mistaken in his specific intent of killing a snake. But intoxication does not negative the basic intent crime of manslaughter, with his . Lastly, while a mistake about a person or the actual action is acceptable, a mistake about how much force to use to defend oneself is not. Using a sledgehammer to fend off an . When it did not, Mr Clegg fired three shots, killing a woman. She was hit in the back, and Mr Clegg was sentenced for murder because by then the car had passed, the force was excessive and there was no justification for self- defence. Another way of expressing the rule on defensive force is that it must be proportionate to the threat. For instance, as the notorious case of R v Martin. In that case, Mr Martin was found to have diminished responsibility for his actions, because he was mentally ill. Sir Galahad, a medieval hero displaying qualities that Lord Halisham did not expect everyone could display under duress. One who is . Duress can be a defence for all crimes, except murder, attempted murder, being an accessory to murder. In R v Howe it was held that to allow the defence of duress as a defence to murder would, in the words of Lord Hailsham, withdraw the protection of the criminal law from the innocent victim and cast the cloak of its protection upon the coward and the poltroon - ordinary people ought to be prepared to give up their lives to the person making the threat in preference to killing an innocent. The accused must not have foregone some safe avenue of escape. Then a number of cases turn on the choice to join a gang, and inevitably do bad things.
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