PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday 28 January
As Thomas Lubanga pleads not guilty to the charge of using children in armed conflict in the first trial by the ICC this week, the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society will hold a symposium starting today in Oxford to ask:
‘Can International Courts do Justice? Conceptions of Justice in Responding to Conflict’
In a lecture at 5.30 today at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, Professor Mark Drumbl will examine the issue of post-genocide justice, questioning the effectiveness of the ICC in delivering justice and arguing that “International criminal law and procedure go some way to achieving justice, but do not go very far. Certainly, not far enough”.
The lecture, organised in collaboration with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and Transitional Justice Research at Oxford University, will be followed on Thursday 29th January by a roundtable of experts from academic, legal and practitioner communities, including a former senior lawyer at the ICC, Morten Bergsmo; the Director of Human Rights Watch, Tom Porteous; and Ben Shepherd of the Commonwealth & Foreign Office.
Responding to the issues raised in Professor Drumbl’s opening address, they will discuss the issues currently confronting international courts and tribunals, and draw on case studies from Africa, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Cambodia to assess how effectively they have delivered justice.
Professor Drumbl will critique the remit of international criminal law, attesting that “the same international community that sat idly by while genocide devastated Rwanda now claims the legitimacy to withhold Rwanda’s ability to adjudicate persons accused of genocide”. He will go on to argue that, “Securing justice for rebels [in Uganda, the DRC, and Rwanda] … comes at the price of immunizing the government … from justice.”
A full transcript of the lecture is available upon request. Professor Mark Drumbl is available for interview.
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Notes for editors
5.30pm, 28 January 2009
Mordan Hall, St Hugh's College, Oxford
Public Lecture:
'Justice after Atrocity: A Cosmopolitan Pluralist Approach'
Mark Drumbl, Professor of Law and Director of the Transnational Law Institute, Washington and Lee University
Why do ordinary people perpetrate genocide and crimes against humanity? How can these perpetrators be held accountable? Are international prosecutions effective?
This lecture explores the potential and limits of liberal criminal law as a method of accountability in the aftermath of atrocity. Drawing from a variety of case-studies, including Rwanda, Timor-Leste, and Bosnia, Professor Drumbl argues that a pluralist approach is needed to diversify the post-conflict justice narrative and render it more effective.
29 January
St Hugh's College, Oxford
Workshop: (invitation only)
'Can International Courts do Justice?
Conceptions of Justice in Responding to Conflict'
This workshop will explore how international criminal tribunals and courts respond to harm caused during conflict. The sessions will investigate the types of justice that the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the ad hoc courts and tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Cambodia are pursuing and will assess how effectively they have delivered justice.
For further information, including details of the workshop programme and participants, please visit: http://www.fljs.org/events
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• Professor Mark Drumbl is Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law and Director of the Transnational Law Institute at Washington and Lee University. Prior to entering law teaching, Professor Drumbl was judicial clerk to Justice Frank Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada. His book, Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2007) received the 2007 Book of the Year Award by the International Association of Criminal Law. Professor Drumbl has been cited in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and has appeared on FOX News. He is available for interview.
• The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society is an independent institution affiliated with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford.
• Founded in 2005, the mission of the Foundation is to study, reflect on and promote an understanding of the role that law plays in society. This is achieved through our programmes examining the role of courts in the making of public policy, the social contract, and rule of law in China.
• The Foundation draws on the work of scholars and researchers, and aims to make its work easily accessible to professionals in government, business, or the law.
http://www.fljs.org
• For more information, please contact Phil Dines, Communications Manager:
+44 (0)7809 219 543 (mobile)
+44 (0)1865 284433 (day)
phil.dines@fljs.org