Restorative Justice under the ICC Penalty Regime.

Source: (2008) The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals. 7(2):235-255.

This paper investigates the International Criminal Court’s prosecutorial and sentencing strategies in supplying durable international, and through complementarity, national accountability mechanisms with clearly defined sentencing objectives. By scrutinising the scope of plea agreements as a validated trial strategy for international crimes and the sentencing rationale of the same, this work evaluates the impact these have on restorative and reconciliatory justice. An overview of this practice as well as that of amnesties aims to illustrate the ideologically ambivalent model of international justice under the ICC Statute and its detrimental outcome, or impartial approach to international justice and, importantly, to the quest for truth. This results in potential distortion of the historical record accompanying conflict, which in turn is fundamental to any peace building and reconciliation process.(author’s abstract)