Building a Global Criminal Justice System at the Domestic Level

ongoing

JOINEDUPJUSTICE develops parameters for a coordinated system of global justice at the domestic level. While the project’s focus is on international criminal law (ICL), international refugee law (IRL) is the starting point; it is the metaphorical canary in the coal mine that flags up questions at the heart of ICL. Many of the domestic prosecutions of international crimes (crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide) are asylum related. This comes with problems. First, article 1F(a) of the Refugee Convention, (exclusion clause), stipulates that those who are suspected of having committed international crimes are undeserving of protection and should be prosecuted. There is no uniform understanding of ‘undeserving’. At the same time, ICL lacks an overarching policy of who is 'deserving' of prosecution. Many excluded asylum claimants remain unprosecuted and exist in a legal limbo. Second, asylum related prosecutions have a distorting effect. It comes with a focus on low-level and ‘low cost’ defendants (from weak countries). Third, it hampers developing a long-term approach to ICL enforcement. The project consists of 5 work packages and 9 subprojects: (i) through empirical research in 8 focus countries and comprehensive case-analysis it maps who is deserving of prosecution whilst scrutinizing the ‘enemy of mankind’ narrative, ‘no safe haven’ and ‘end to impunity’ goals, (ii) it clarifies the scope of ‘undeserving’ and draws the line between criminal complicity and non-criminal association, addressing the ICL-IRL mismatch that leaves many in limbo, (iii) it proposes a system of ‘jurisdiction designation’ based on subsidiarity and burden-sharing plus a settlement proposal premised on a ‘right to start again’, (iv) allows for policy integration, (v) and synthesises findings into an account of coordinated global criminal justice. The project’s ambition, scope and methodology will lead to a step change in international criminal justice where the future is domestic.