Introduction
In recent years both criminology and criminal law have become
much more
aware of issues surrounding what might be called 'powerful offenders',
that is to say, offenders who have various resources with which to
neutralise the efforts of the criminal justice agencies to apprehend
and convict them. The power of rapists to prevent
their victims from pursuing legal redress is well known as is witness
intimidation by organised criminal gangs. The ability of organised
crime and terrorist groups to evade the law enforcement agencies is
also a very topical issue. One of our themes here will be the extent to
which, in order to equip itself with stronger powers to deal with such
offenders, the criminal justice system is in fact dismantling vital
parts of our system of civil liberties. By way of an overall
introduction to this theme you may care to read my
overview lecture which covers some of the themes of Criminal Justice and Powerful Offenders.
Moving further into the issues of power and politics we can
look at examples of powerful companies involved in illegal activities
but able to deflect the attentions of the criminal justice system.
Finally, in recent years the activities of the International Criminal
Court have illustrated some of the problems of trying to bring to
justice heads of state or warlords who may have committed war crimes or
crimes against humanity
17th March 2009: the rapist and the criminal trial process
The aim of this seminar is to see how far the combination of
patriarchial assumptions about female sexuality can, in combination
with the adversarial trial process can in effect reverse the power
relations between victim and offender such that the victim is forced to
undergo a second trial even while appearing as chief witness for the
prosecution.
seminar question
In rape cases how far does the adversarial nature of the
criminal court
trial shift the balance of power in favour of the defendant?
notes for the seminar
key text:
S. Lees (1997) 'Judicial Rape: Researching Rape Trials'
in S.
Lees Ruling Passions: Sexual
Violence, Reputation and the Law. Milton
Keynes: Open University Press (chapter 3)
other reading:
S.Lees (1997) 'The Representation of the Body in British Rape
Trials'
in S. Lees Ruling Passions:
Sexual Violence, Reputation and the
Law. Milton Keynes: Open University Press (chapter 4) a version
is also
available here
S. Lees (2002) Carnal Knowledge:
Rape On Trial (second edition) London: Women’s Press
S. Lees and J. Gregory (1999) Policing
Sexual
Assault. London: Routledge
B. Campbell (2007) 'Rape: The Truth' New Statesman 16th April
24th March 2009: organised crime and surveillance
The aim of this seminar is to show how currently popular
methods of
combating organised crime by focusing on money laundering has created a
strong pressure to undermine traditional conceptions of criminal
procedure and rights of the accused. We shall illustrate this issue
with a particular focus on recent UK legislation concerning the
confiscation of assets considered, by law enforcement agencies, to be
the proceeds of crime
seminar question:
"In order to effectively obstruct the activities of powerful
organised
crime groups, some compromises on traditional notions of civil
liberties and due process are inevitable." Discuss with reference to
recent UK egislation on the confiscation of criminal assets
notes for the seminar
key text:
J. Lea (2004) 'Hitting Criminals where it hurts: organised
crime and
the erosion of due process' Cambrian
Law Review vol 35:
81-96 (An earlier version is here )
other reading:
5th May 2009: business crime and the work of the UK Serious
Fraud Office: the case of BAE Systems
When dealing with powerful criminal
offenders such as organised criminals, terrorists or corrupt business
executives, yet alone heads of state, the interface between criminal
justice and politics becomes very clear. A very clear case of this was
the decision by the Serious Fraud Office in 2006 to abandon its
investigation into the sale of armaments to Saudi Arabia by British
arms manufacturer BAE Systems on the grounds that the continuation of
the investigation would endanger national security.
seminar question:
"Under what circumstances, if at all, should political
considerations be permitted to influence
the investigation and prosecution of crime?"
notes for the seminar
key text:
Tim Webb (2007) Bribing
For
Britain. Goodwin Paper No 5.
London:
Campaign
Against
Arms
Trade
(see
also
their Briefing
Paper
on BAE Systems)
other reading:
Website of the UK Serious Fraud Office (type 'BAE'
into the search box)
BBC news website giving background
to the decision to abandon investigation into BAE arms sales to Saudi
Arabia here
and here
(further searches on this site will reveal a wealth of detail)
The BAE Files a
Guardian newspaper website giving a wealth of background and up to date
detail on the issue
Corruption Is A Crime.
Another website with numerous articles (mainly press cuttings) on the
BAE case and other issues of corruption
Frontline World: The Business of Bribes (website of the International Confederation of Investigative Journalists)
Control
BAE - Another website campaigning to re-open the SFO Inquiry into
BAE and the Saudi Arms deals
Susan Hawley (2003) Turning a Blind Eye: Corruption and the UK
Export Credits Guarantee Department. London: The Corner House
The official website
of BAE Systems with special focus on the Woolf Report, commissioned
by the company to investigate issues of business ethics
article in The
Times
(July
30th
2008) reviewing House of Lords decision on
legality of the SFO action in abandoning the investigation of BAE
Systems
In recent years The Serious Fraud
Office has come in for a good deal of criticism for inefficiency. In
2007 the Attorney General invited a leading New York prosecutor,
Jessica de Grazia, to conduct a review of the SFO. Her report remains
secret. Here are some press references: The
Sunday
Times (February 2009) Accountancy
Age (June 2008) The Guardian
(July 2007)
12th May 2009: terrorism criminality or warfare?
building on what we learned in the previous seminar this
session aims
to understand the issues surrounding the changed nature of modern
terrorism (particularly since '9/11') and the most effective way of
confronting it. In particular whether traditional police and
intelligence gathering methods are any longer adequate or whether new
ones involving compromises on civil liberties and due process are
necessary.
seminar question:
"Efforts to combat modern forms of
terrorism inevitably
involve serious compromises on civil rights" Discuss
notes for the seminar
key text:
Lutz, B. and Lutz, J. (2006) 'Terrorism'
in
Allan
Collins
ed.
Contemporary
Security Studies. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. (this chapter has its own powerpoint presentation here)
Morrison, Wayne (2006). Criminology,
Civilisation
and
the
New
World
Order. London: Routledge.
(chapter 1)
other reading:
Steve Hewitt (2008) The British War on Terror: terrorism and counter-terrorism on the home front since 9/11 London: Continuum Books
Laura Donohue (2008). The
Cost
of
Counterterrorism:
Power,
Politics,
and
Liberty.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Criminal Justice Matters (2008) Special Issue on Terrorism (requires subscription)
Policing Journal
(2007) special issue on Policing
Terrorism (requires subscription)
Laura Donohue (2005). Security and Freedom on the
Fulcrum. Terrorism and Political
Violence, 17, 69-87.
J. Lea (2005) Terrorism,
Crime
and
the
Collapse
of
Civil
Liberties
E. Manningham-Buller (2005) 'The
International
Terrorist
Threat
and
the
Dilemmas in Countering it' London: M15.
R. Wedgwood and K. Roth (2004) 'Combatants or Criminals?
How Washington Should HandleTerrorists', Foreign Affairs, 83(3)
Barry Vaughan & Shane Kilcommins (2007). The
Europeanization of Human Rights:
An Obstacle to Authoritarian Policing in Ireland. European Journal of Criminology,
4(4), 437-460.
Barry Vaughan & Shane Kilcommins (2007). Terrorism, Rights and the Rule of Law.
Cullompton:
Willan
Publishing.
Scilla Elworthy & Paul Rogers (2002) A
Never-Ending
War?
Consequences
of
September
11. Oxford Research Group
Liberty (UK
Human Rights organisation) numerous articles and briefings on
anti-terrorist legislation
A. Blick, S. Weir (2005) The Rules
of the Game: Britain’s
counter-terrorism strategy. London: Open Democracy
Amnesty International (2006) United
Kingdom: Human Rights A Broken
Promise.
G. Martin (2003) Understanding
Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues London: Sage
Publications
J. Stevenson (2004) 'Counter-terrorism: Containment and Beyond'. Adelphi Paper 367. London:
International Institute of Strategic Studies
D. Tucker (2001). What is New about the New Terrorism
and How Dangerous is It? Terrorism
and Political Violence, 13, 1-14.
Wikipedia web site on terrorism
Tony Blair on the 'war
on
terror' (The Sunday Times, 27 May 2007)
19th May 2009: war crimes and the role of the International
Criminal Court
Today wars are rarely fought
between the uniformed military forces of sovereign nation states
preceded by formal declarations of war and concluded by official peace
treaties or surrender. They are more likely to be chaotic affairs
reflecting the break-up and collapse of national states and fought by a
diversity of irregular forces using a variety of weaponry and mainly
targetting civilian populations. This characteristic of 'new wars' (see
Kaldor below) and the atrocities (genocide, ethnic cleansing etc.) with
which they are frequently associated has made it easier to treat such
conflicts as forms of criminality. The establishment of tribunals such
as the International Criminal Court in 2002 and the issue of arrest
warrants for military leaders and even heads of state deemed guilty of
perpetrating war crimes or crimes against humanity, seems to be step in
the direction of assimilating armed conflict to the status of
criminality
seminar question
How far has the work of the
International Criminal Court made possible the criminalisation of war
and the treatment of heads of state or military leaders as criminal
offenders?
notes for the seminar
key texts
Mayerfeld, J. (2001) 'The
Democratic Achievement of the International Criminal Court' Finnish Yearbook of International Law
vol XII
Mayerfeld, J. (2004) 'The
Democratic Legacy of the International Criminal Court' Fletcher Forum on World Affairs
28(2): 147-56
other reading
Philippe Sands (2006) Lawless World. London: Penguin Books
Inside Justice (2009) The
International
Court
in
a New Era. This recent web page based on a
hearing at the US House of Representatives gives a useful introduction
and brief history of the ICC
Nick Grono (2008) The
International
Criminal
Court:
success or failure? Open
Democracy website
The official ICC website.
Here you can read reports and updates of ICC current cases and even
watch video of the court in action
ICC
Student Network "brings together students from around the world in
support of international justice" (lots of material and links)
"USA
for
the
ICC' a pressure group arguing in favour of the US becoming
a member of the ICC
John Bolton, former official in the
George Bush Administration, argues
strongly
against
US
membership of the ICC
Phillipe Ferlet and Patrice Sartre
(2007) The
International
Criminal
Court
in the light of American and French
positions French official view on the ICC which explains clearly
the history of the court and why France supports it and with some
criticisms of the US attitude
website for movie 'The Reckoning' showing
from March 2009 'the epic story of the battle for the International
Criminal Court' complete with video trailer
Wikipedia has numerous pages on the ICC. The best place to start is here
Dafur and the indictment of President Omar Bashir
International
Crisis
Group website response to the indictment
Martin Shaw (2009) Sudan,
the
ICC
and
genocide: a fateful decision. Open
Democracy
website
Victor Peskin (2008) The
Omar
al-Bashir
indictment:
the ICC and the Darfur crisis. Open
Democracy website
A
dilemma
over
Darfur The
Economist 15th July 2008
Waddel, P. and Clark, P. eds (2008)
Courting Conflict? Justice, Peace
and the ICC in Africa. London:
Royal
Africa
Society
Wikipedia pages on Dafur
Guardian article by Julie Fint and Alex de Waal opposing the actions of the ICC regarding Dafur (6 March 2009)
Guardian article by Cherie Blair on the African Union's support for Mr Bashir (18 July 2009)
Crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, New Wars - the
foundations of international criminal law?
Kaldor, M (2006) New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a
Global Era (2nd Edition) Cambridge: Polity (this is an important
background text. You can read
the
introduction on Google )
Cawston, R. (2005) Nuremberg
and
the
legacy
of law Open
Democracy website
Dworkin, A. (2007) The
law
and
genocide:
Bosnia, Serbia, and justice Open
Democracy website
Wikipedia web page on Crimes
against humanity
Martin Shaw (2007) What Is Genocide? Cambridge:
Polity chapter
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