The Nuremberg trial, later followed by the Tokyo trial, is a milestone in the development of international law. For the first time in modern history, the leaders of a defeated country were indicted for committing serious crimes jeopardizing the bases of peaceful coexistence among individual human beings and peoples: crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. German objections...

The notion of a more “victim-centred” approach to peacebuilding and Transitional Justice (TJ), is increasingly emphasised in academic, legal policy discourse. Unfortunately, this element mostly lacking within the context Uganda’s post war recovery transition. This article attempts strike balance between retributive justice reconciliation. Considering challenges achieving through courts, includi...

Asperger's Disorder has the potential to be relevant to many aspects of the functioning of the criminal justice system. However, its mere presence does not excuse or justify all offending. The inquiry into its potential relevance to criminal offending and sentencing must be both contextual and informed by suitably qualified expert evidence. This column reviews court decisions in respect of offe...

The purpose of this paper is to advance our formal understanding of the common law, especially the nature of the reasoning involved, but also its point, or justification. As so often in discussions of the modern common law, I will concentrate on the doctrine of precedent, according to which decisions by earlier courts constrain decisions by later courts, while still allowing these later courts ...

Courts in the United States do not recognize a formal “cultural defense” for criminal acts committed by defendants belonging to other cultures. This means that courts ostensibly do not take foreign cultural practices, customs, or beliefs into account in evaluating the guilt of individuals who break U.S. laws. Nonetheless, courts have repeatedly permitted cultural evidence to be introduced as an...

This article examines one-year of publicly available criminal judgments from one basic-level rural county court and one intermediate court in Henan Province in order to better understand trends in routine criminal adjudication in China. I present an account of ordinary criminal justice in China that is both familiar and striking: a system that treats serious crimes, in particular those affectin...