Guilty Pleas in International Criminal Law

Nancy Combs is Assistant Professor at William & Mary School of Law.

• Contents INTRODUCTION1 CHAPTER ONE - INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEN AND NOW: THE LONG ROAD FROM IMPUNITY TO (SOME) ACCOUNTABILITY1 A. The Norms of Impunity1 B. Tentative Steps: Establishing the Ad Hoc Tribunals and other Institutions to Prosecute International Crimes1 C. Non-Prosecutorial Mechanisms: Reparations Schemes and Truth-Telling Commissions1 1. Reparations Schemes1 2. Truth-Telling Commissions1 CHAPTER TWO - FINANCIAL REALITIES: TARGETING ONLY THE LEADERS1 A. The ICTY and the ICTR1 B. The ICC1 C. Hybrid International/Domestic Courts in Sierra Leone, East Timor, and Cambodia1 D. Domestic Prosecutions1 CHAPTER THREE - DO THE NUMBERS COUNT? THE ENDS SERVED BY INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS IN SOCIETIES EMERGING FROM MASS ATROCITIES1 A. Retribution1 B. Deterrence1 C. Incapacitation1 D. Rehabilitation1 E. Goals Specific to Societies Emerging From Large-Scale Violence1 F. Summary1 CHAPTER FOUR - THE PLEA BARGAINING OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMES: THE PRACTICE OF THE ICTY, ICTR, SPECIAL PANELS FOR EAST TIMOR, AND GACACA COURTS1 A. Guilty Plea Procedures at the International Tribunals1 B. Plea Bargaining at the ICTY1 1. The Tribunal's Early Guilty Pleas1 2. The Introduction of Charge Bargaining1 3. The Evolution of Sentence Bargaining1 4. Appeals in ICTY Guilty Plea Cases1 5. Other Aspects of the Evolution of ICTY Plea Bargaining1 CHAPTER FIVE: PLEA BARGAINING AT THE ICTR AND AT THE SPECIAL PANELS IN EAST TIMOR1 A. Plea Bargaining at the ICTR1 1.Kambanda1 2. Serushago1 3. Ruggiu1 4.Rutaganira1 5. The ICTR's Practice of Plea Bargaining1 B. Plea Bargaining at the Special Panels in East Timor1 1. Criminal Prosecutions at the Special Panels for Serious Crimes and an Overview of Early Guilty Pleas1 2. The Evolution of Plea Bargaining at the Special Panels1 C. The Plea Bargaining of International Crimes1 CHAPTER SIX - USING CONVENTIONAL PLEA BARGAINING TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL CRIMES1 CHAPTER SEVEN - PLEA BARGAINING AS RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: USING GUILTY PLEAS TO ADVANCE BOTH CRIMINAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND RECONCILIATION1 A. The Theory1 B. The Practice1 C. Potential Obstacles1 D. Summary1 CHAPTER EIGHT - APPLYING RESTORATIVE PRINCIPLES IN THE AFTERMATH OF DIFFERENT ATROCITIES: A CONTEXTUAL APPROACH1 A. A Summary of Four Atrocities1 1. Argentina1 2. Bosnia1 a. Prison Camps1 b. Siege of Sarajevo1 c. Srebrenica1 3. Rwanda1 4. East Timor1 B. Restorative-Justice Values in Different Factual Contexts1 1. Truth-telling1 2. Victim Participation1 3. Reparations1 C. The Contours of Optimal Restorative-Justice Guilty-Plea Systems in the Argentine, Bosnian, Rwandan, and East Timorese Contexts1 1. Argentina1 2. Bosnia1 3. Rwanda1 4. East Timor1 5. Summary1 CHAPTER NINE: THE MINIMAL ROLE OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN CURRENT INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS1 A. Restorative Elements in ICTY Guilty-Plea Processes1 1. Victim Involvement1 2. Truth-telling1 3. Apologies1 A. Restorative Elements in ICTR Guilty-Plea Processes1 1.Victim Involvement1 2. Truth-Telling1 3. Apologies1 C. Restorative Elements in Special Panels Guilty Plea Processes1 1. Truth-telling1 D.Reconciliation and Restoration Through Rwanda's Domestic Guilty Plea Procedures and its Gacaca Courts1 E. Reconciliation and Restoration Through East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation1 CONCLUSION1

"Combs has produced the first definitive treatment of the controversial issue of plea bargaining in cases involving the gravest crimes known to humankind. This meticulously researched and superbly written book is essential reading for anyone working or writing in international criminal law." - Michael P. Scharf, 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Professor of Law and Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center (Case Western Reserve University School of Law) "Combs skillfully introduces the subject of plea bargaining as a process that can resolve, or at least mitigate, the problems facing efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Time and time again, Guilty Pleas furthers the goals of restorative justice in an innovative and insightful fashion." - John F. Murphy (Villanova University School of Law) "Guilty Pleas builds on the tension between the rights of victims to see perpetrators brought to justice and modern concepts of restorative justice. Combs sets out an eloquent case for a plea bargaining approach, derived from experience before national courts." - William A. Schabas, National University of Ireland (Galway) "Plea bargaining (and amnesty) constitutes the critical dilemma of international criminal law. Nancy Combs provides the most thorough treatment we have of it. This is a thoughtful book that exposes the paradoxes in the way rule of law policies work out. It is a landmark contribution to international criminal law and to restorative justice scholarship." - John Braithwaite (Australian National University)