International Criminal Law
Books - Tribunal Materials - Journals - Reports
KZ 6310 – International Criminal Court
K 5000’s - genocide / war crimes
KZ 1200’s – Rwanda, Sierra Leone & Yugoslavia tribunals
KZ 1100’s – Nuremberg tribunal
Browsing for library books:
Aisles 3-53 &3-54 hold books with and about foreign countries’ laws.
Tribunal Materials
Expect to find the scope of jurisdiction, treaty authority, procedural requirements, practice rules, and case records on an international criminal tribunal’s Web site. All of these kinds of resources will be fundamental to your understanding and demonstrating the court’s unique operations.
- International Criminal Court
http://www.icc-cpi.int/ - International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
http://www.ictr.org (Westlaw also) - International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
http://www.icty.org (Westlaw also) - International Military Tribunal for Germany (Nuremberg)
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/imt.asp - Khmer Rouge Tribunal
http://www.eccc.gov.kh - Special Court for Sierra Leone
http://www.sc-sl.org - Special Tribunal for Lebanon
http://www.stl-tsl.org/
When you first visit a tribunal’s Web site, look for documents in which the tribunal describes itself and presents its work. Read the “about us” page. Poke through one or two of its annual reports. Peruse its other publications. Note if it has a list of links to related entities or sources.
Because tribunals often publish their materials in chronological order rather than subject order, take advantage of their “news” or “press releases” collections to find out when there was action on particular topics or in certain cases.
To efficiently search for combined topics and phrases within a tribunal’s official site follow this pattern using Google: site:www.icty.org “ethnic cleansing”
Journal Articles
To see the kinds of research questions that others have raised and to figure out what has not been investigated, look through scholarly legal articles.
- Legal Trac is an index to legal periodicals, so it references more articles than individual full-text databases do.
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/upitt_main - Oxford Journals
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/search.dtl and - Cambridge Journals
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/search are two good European publishing companies that produce numerous scholarly law journals. - Ethnic News Watch http://www.library.pitt.edu/articles/database_info/eth_news.html has mostly news sources but if you check the box for “scholarly journals” you will find unique authoritative journal articles.
- The Peace Palace Library for U.N. operations in The Hague catalogs journal articles along with new books. Search in http://catalogue.ppl.nl/
- National and regional yearbooks of international law often have excellent scholarly articles about emerging case issues, legislative trends, and treaty applications. Access them through Hein Online’s link to “foreign & international law resources.” http://www.heinonline.org/
Particularly Relevant Journals
Look for these on the 5th floor or electronically via http://pittcat.pitt.edu.
- Journal of International Criminal Justice
- Leiden Journal of International Law
- International Criminal Law Review
- American Journal of International Law
- European Journal of International Law
- Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law
Reports and Other Analysis
When you need to establish facts about the substantive, jurisdictional, or procedural issue and the issue’s effects on society, look to these sources of quantitative and analytical research.
- The Center for Transitional Justice publishes reports about post-atrocity investigations, adjustments, and prosecutions.
http://ictj.org/ - The UNHCR’s RefWorld compiles articles, case opinions, and reports on all facets of “Administration of Justice”.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic/4565c225b.html - The War Crimes Studies Center monitors the international criminal tribunals and publishes studies about their operations.
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~warcrime/index.htm - The Congressional Quarterly Researcher has only occasional, but excellent, reports on U.S. international crime interests. See, for example, “Closing Guantanamo.”
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/index.php - Public Affairs Information Service collects scholarly articles, conference reports, white papers, etc…
http://www.library.pitt.edu/articles/database_info/pais.html - The International Committee on the Red Cross is responsible for assisting victims of humanitarian law violations. The organization has background papers, primary documents, and various types of studies on all topics of humanitarian law.
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/ihl?OpenDocument
Note the ICRC’s quarterly “International Review”
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/review?OpenDocument - The National Criminal Justice Research Service produces thorough reports.
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/search/AdvancedSearch.aspx
