Doctoral Degrees (Public Law)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Public Law) by Subject "Article 65 of the Rome Statute"

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    Plea negotiation at the International Criminal Court : opportunities and costs
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Oyugi, Phoebe Akinyi; Kemp, Gerhard; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Law. Dept. of Public Law.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The International Criminal Court (ICC) faces serious challenges in the delivery of its mandate including legal and procedural challenges, political challenges as well as challenges relating to the victim participation and reparation regime. Therefore, this dissertation examines the question of whether the ICC should implement a plea negotiation policy to mitigate some of the challenges it faces. In order to answer this question, three sub-questions are set out as follows: which of the challenges facing the ICC might be mitigated by the implementation of a plea negotiation policy; whether plea negotiation would fit into the legal and procedural framework of the ICC; and, which lessons might be learned from the practice of plea negotiations in national jurisdictions on one hand, and in the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda on the other hand. The dissertation concludes that the ICC should implement a policy of plea negotiation because it fits in the ICC’s legal and procedural framework and it can help mitigate some of the legal, procedural and political challenges facing the ICC. Be that as it may, the limitations of the practice of plea negotiation are fully acknowledged. However, it is argued that, these limitations can be mitigated by paying attention to lessons learned from the law, policy and jurisprudence relating to plea negotiations in national jurisdictions and the preceding international criminal tribunals. All in all, the dissertation concludes that plea negotiation could be an important tool to increase the efficiency of trials and increase conviction rates while saving judicial resources at the ICC. Appendix A and B of this dissertation contain texts of proposed provisions on plea negotiation to be included in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, respectively.