Both chairs will on the national and international level strengthen the position of the Faculty on empirical legal studies and criminology of conflict-related crimes. Combined, the chairs will consolidate and further develop the unique education and research already ongoing in the unique Master International Crimes, Conflict and Criminology and the Faculty’s Center for International Criminal Justice (CICJ), focusing on empirical approaches to study assumptions, functioning and effects of international (criminal) law and trials and on studying the root causes, effects and responses to conflict-related crimes. Instituting the Chair means the Faculty becomes an even stronger focal point for empirical legal research on international criminal justice and criminology of conflict-related crimes worldwide.
Empirical Legal Studies of International Criminal Justice
Ever since the early 1990’s the field of international criminal law and practices of international criminal justice after atrocities have exponentially grown. The international community has established numerous international criminal courts and tribunals (ICTs) to ensure that “justice is done” and the most culpable perpetrators of atrocity crimes do not go unpunished. Notably with the establishment of the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002, the world has witnessed an unprecedented shift towards holding individuals accountable for international crimes (international criminal justice). International criminal trials have become a legal, political and societal reality. Despite the initial optimism and overwhelming support, however, international criminal justice has increasingly encountered challenges and faced growing criticism. Barbora: “The vast majority of scholarship remains largely theoretical, doctrinal and normative. In order to move forward, the scholarship and practice in international criminal justice needs empirically based approaches. With few notable exceptions, there is a lack of sound empirical legal research on international criminal law, international criminal trials and their functioning and effects. International criminal justice needs empirical legal studies.”
Conflict-related Crimes and Post-conflict Justice
In today’s ever more complex and globalized world, armed conflicts, terrorism, forced migration and criminality are increasingly intertwined. Violent conflicts provide opportunities for a plethora of atrocity crimes, such as large-scale or systematic looting, killing civilians, sexual violence, recruitment of child soldiers, genocide, or transnational organized crime, including human trafficking, human smuggling, kidnappings and wildlife crime. Such conflict related crimes - serious crimes that are caused by or perpetrated in the context of an intense conflict and/or more or less protracted violent clashes between two or more organized groups - entail widespread mortality and victimization, as well as long-lasting societal trauma and disruption that may take generations to heal. International organizations, non-governmental (interest) groups and governments are confronted with questions how to respond to these criminal acts and how to deal with their harmful consequences (post-conflict justice). Joris: “Without sound interdisciplinary research of such criminality, appropriate and effective societal responses do not get off the ground or go astray. The ongoing violent conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, but also ‘forgotten’ conflicts like the ones in Sudan or Yemen, mean that the this type of research and education is ever more urgent and societally relevant.”