FIU Law is hosting a micro-symposium with Professor Charles C. Jalloh discussing his latest book published by Cambridge University Press in July 2020 entitled The Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone this Friday at 12:30pm. RSVP today by emailing fiulawreview2020microsymposium@gmail.com with your information.
FIU Law is pleased to host this micro-symposium on Professor Charles C. Jalloh’s latest book published by Cambridge University Press in July 2020 entitled The Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The author and keynote speaker will discuss his new book assessing whether the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), which was established jointly through the first bilateral treaty between the United Nations (UN) and one of its member states (i.e. Sierra Leone) in 2002, made jurisprudential contributions to the development of the nascent and still unsettled field of international criminal law. The book, which focuses on the main legal legacy of the SCSL, opens with an examination of the historical and political circumstances which led to the outbreak of a notoriously brutal civil war in Sierra Leone, West Africa, which lasted between March 1991 and January 2002 and led to approximately 75,000 deaths. Following a discussion of the creation, jurisdiction, and the trials conducted by the SCSL, the author examines the SCSL’s unique personal jurisdiction over persons bearing “greatest responsibility” for the serious crimes committed in Sierra Leone and the implications of its use in future ad hoc international tribunals; the prosecution of the novel crime of “forced marriage” as other inhumane acts of crimes against humanity; the prosecution of the war crime of recruitment and use of children under the age of fifteen for the purpose of using them to participate in hostilities; as well as issues of immunity for the serving head of state of Liberia, which President Charles Taylor sought to invoke to block his own trial for international crimes before the SCSL. The book then discusses the status of blanket amnesties under international law, and critically evaluates the SCSL’s ruling that such a domestic measure could not block prosecution of universally condemned crimes before an independent international tribunal. Lastly, the book evaluates the tenuous interaction between truth commissions and special courts given both their simultaneous operation in Sierra Leone and distinctive mandates aimed at reconciliation and punishment. The author demonstrates that the SCSL, as the third modern international criminal tribunal supported by the UN, made some useful jurisprudential additions on many of these topics, and in some cases broke new ground, and that these represent a valuable legal and judicial contribution to the development of the nascent field of international criminal law.
More details on flyer below.
Click here to learn more about the Keynote Speaker, Professor Charles C. Jalloh.