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Fairness and Rights in International Criminal Procedure
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This book examines two of the most fundamental precepts of international criminal justice: fairness, and the rights of the accused. These two ideas - and the relationship between them - are central, contested, and misunderstood. What exactly is 'fairness'? How do we know whether or not a trial is fair? Can a trial still be 'fair' if the rights of the accused are undermined? This book particularly examines procedural decisions made in recent trials at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The primary question in this book is, how are fairness and the rights of the accused connected in procedural decision-making in contemporary international criminal trials? Fairness, rights, and procedure are closely aligned, but I show that in making decisions about how these trials are run, Trial Chambers routinely invoke the idea of fairness - in order to justify decisions which may undermine the rights of the accused. Thus, we can observe a distancing between them in judicial decisions. This book ultimately calls for a renewed close association between fairness and the rights of the accused, particularly when making determinations on matters of procedure in international criminal trials.
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