This thesis examines the normative dimensions of the acts that constitute international crimes. It offers a conceptualisation of the normative dimensions of these acts as processes of construction... Show moreThis thesis examines the normative dimensions of the acts that constitute international crimes. It offers a conceptualisation of the normative dimensions of these acts as processes of construction and meaning making. Using the crimes of attacks on cultural property, pillage, sexual violence and reproductive violence as case studies for analysis, the thesis develops an interdisciplinary methodological approach which centralises the narratives and discourses that emerge around particular crimes as central to how they are given normative content in practice. This analysis reveals a diverse, flexible and dynamic normative picture of these crimes, which demonstrates how their normative meanings are not natural or given, but are instead produced through an ongoing process of meaning making that takes place throughout the legal process in a continuum of cases. Understanding the normative dimensions of the acts that constitute international crimes in these terms not only exposes a diversity of interests that transcends their dominant characterisations as violations of basic security rights, but also uncovers the processes through which their normative foundations are constructed and transformed internally through practice. This thesis ultimately offers a dynamic, pluralist and socially constructed account of wrong in international criminal law, which recognises the relationship between criminal wrong and transformations in the wider social and political order, and contributes to developing a more granular understanding of the nature of the representational work that international criminal justice does in the world. Show less
The main purpose of this research project is to inquire into the emerging civil dimension of international criminal law which, in contrast to the criminal dimension, focuses on reparation for... Show moreThe main purpose of this research project is to inquire into the emerging civil dimension of international criminal law which, in contrast to the criminal dimension, focuses on reparation for victims both at national and international levels. The ultimate goal of this project is to address how international criminal justice should develop in relation to civil redress for victims of international crimes. For this purpose, this study examines, compares and contrasts three analytical frameworks for the adjudication of the civil dimensions of international crimes. The analysis starts the first framework from a theoretical and conceptual discussion of theories of justice grounding the right of victims to reparation juxtaposed with the development of a duty of reparation imposed directly on individuals. I address the relationship between punishment and reparation and their impact on victims, offenders and societies in general, in a theoretical perspective. It then utilizes case studies at the international and national level, as well as the use of administrative mechanisms to discuss the operationalization of reparations for international crimes. Show less
