The Hybrid Experiment: Assessing the Special Court for Sierra Leone

Girelli, Giada

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-53606-4_8

Giada Girelli³

Part of the book series: Philosophy, Public Policy, and Transnational Law ((PPPTL))

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Abstract

Hybrid courts rest on a simple idea: mix the best of international and local experiences, in this way promoting ownership while at the same time ensuring impartiality, independence and high standards of justice. This chapter analyses these bodies, developed in response to growing dissatisfaction towards more traditional approaches, through the example of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: it briefly reconstructs the civil war in the African country and the establishment of the court, also outlining its most significant characteristics, merits and limitations, which largely reflect those of most hybrid courts. This reflection will also allow to pause on the concept of hybridity, and to consider potential issues related to its uncritical adoption as an objective of post-conflict processes.

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Notes

1.
Ethel Higonnet, “Restructuring Hybrid Courts. Local Empowerment and National Criminal Justice Reform”, Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository (2005): 5
2.
Sarah M.H. Nouwen, “Hybrid Courts. The Hybrid Category of a New Type of International Crimes Court”, Utrecht Law Review 2 (2006): 191
3.
Higonnet, “Restructuring Hybrid Courts”, 8
4.
Jenny H. Peterson, “A Conceptual Unpacking of Hybridity: Accounting for Notions of Power, Politics and Progress in Analyses of Aid-Driven Interfaces”, Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 7(2): 12
5.
David Luban; Julie O’Sullivan, and David P. Stewart, International and Transnational Criminal Law (New York: Aspen Publishers, 2010), 171
6.
For an overview of some of the most significant hybrid courts, see David Cohen, “Hybrid Justice in East Timor, Sierra Leone and Cambodia: ‘Lessons Learned’ and Prospects for the Future”, Stanford Journal of International Law 43 (2007): 2–38
7.
Tim Kelsall, Culture Under Cross-Examination (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 25
8.
Stephen J. Rapp, “The Compact Model in International Criminal Justice: The Special Court for Sierra Leone”, Drake Law Review 57 (2008): 12
9.
Ibid., 14
10.
Ibid., 13
11.
Elizabeth M. Evenson, “Truth and Justice in Sierra Leone: Coordination between Commission and Court”, Columbia Law Review 104 (2004): 734
12.
Shahram Dana, “The Sentencing Legacy of the Special Court of Sierra Leone”, Georgia Journal of International Comparative Law 42(3): 621
13.
Beth K. Dougherty, “Right-Sizing International Criminal Justice: The Hybrid Experiment at the Special Court for Sierra Leone”, International Affairs 80(2) (2004): 315
14.
Friederike Mieth, “Bringing Justice and Enforcing Peace? An Ethnographic Perspective on the Impact of the Special Court for Sierra Leone”, International Journal of Conflict and Violence 7(1): 3
15.
Dana, “The Sentencing Legacy of the Special Court of Sierra Leone, 620
16.
Mieth, “Bringing Justice and Enforcing Peace?”, 3
17.
Ibid., 4
18.
Peace Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone (Lomé Peace Accord), Lomé, 7 July 1999
19.
Lomé Peace Accord, Art. 9(3)
20.
Evenson, “Truth and Justice in Sierra Leone”, 735
21.
UNAMSIL was created through UN Security Council Res 1270 (1999), Un. Doc. S/RES/1270
22.
Elizabeth Nielsen, “Hybrid International Criminal Tribunals: Political Interference and Judicial Independence”, Ucla Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 289 (2010): 317
23.
Kelsall, Culture Under Cross-Examination, 28
24.
Evenson, “Truth and Justice in Sierra Leone”, 739
25.
Rosalind Shaw, “Memory Frictions: Localizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone”, The International Journal of Transitional Justice 1 (2007): 184
26.
Gearoid Millar, “Assessing Local Experiences of Truth-Telling in Sierra Leone: Getting to ‘Why’ through a Qualitative Case Study Analysis”, The International Journal of Transitional Justice 4 (2010), 490
27.
Higonnet, “Restructuring Hybrid Courts”, 7
28.
Laura A. Dickinson, “The Promise of Hybrid Courts”, The American Journal of International Law 97(2) (2003): 299
29.
Charles Chernor Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, Michigan Journal of International Law 32 (2011): 398
30.
Dickinson, “The Promise of Hybrid Courts”, 299
31.
UN Security Council Res 1315 (2000), Un. Doc. S/RES/1315 (2000): 1
32.
Agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone on the Establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone, 16 January 2002, 2178 UNTS 138
33.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 402
34.
Ezequiel Jimenez, “Hybrid Tribunals as Capacity Building: Narrowing the Impunity Gap” (Master diss., University of Gothenburg, 2015): 22
35.
Rapp, “The Compact Model in International Criminal Justice”, 21
36.
Agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone on the Establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone, Art. 2–4
37.
Nouwen, “Hybrid Courts”, 204
38.
Padraig McAuliffe, “Hybrid Tribunal at Ten: How International Criminal Justice Golden Child Became an Orphan”, Journal of International Law and International Relations 1 (2011): 35
39.
Neha Jain, “Conceptualising Internationalisation in Hybrid Criminal Courts”, Singapore Year Book of International Law and Contributors 12 (2008): 83
40.
Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Lomé, 7 July 1999, 2178 UNTS 138
41.
Ibid., Art. 2
42.
Ibid., Art. 3
43.
Ibid., Art. 4
44.
Ibid.
45.
Ibid., Art. 5
46.
Jimenez, “Hybrid Tribunals as Capacity Building”, 23
47.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 403
48.
Higonnet, “Restructuring Hybrid Courts”, 10
49.
Ibid., 12
50.
For example, the RUF often performed traditional rituals that were believed to make the soldiers invisible or bullet-proof, and that heavily influenced the behaviour of the combatants. See Kelsall, Culture Under Cross-Examination, 109
51.
McAuliffe, “Hybrid Tribunal at Ten”, 12
52.
Ibid., 14
53.
Jimenez, “Hybrid Tribunals as Capacity Building”, 29
54.
Ibid., 30
55.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 454
56.
Cohen, “Hybrid Justice in East Timor, Sierra Leone and Cambodia”, 22
57.
Ibid., 5
58.
Donna E. Arzt, “Views on the Ground: The Local Perception of International Criminal Tribunals in the Former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 603 (2006): 230
59.
Ibid.
60.
Valerie Oosterveld, “The Gender Jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Progress in the Revolutionary United Front Judgments”, Cornell International Law Journal 44 (2011): 60
61.
Ibid., 65
62.
Mieth, “Bringing Justice and Enforcing Peace”, 10
63.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 429
64.
Agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone on the Establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone, Art. 6
65.
Dougherty, “Right-Sizing International Criminal Justice”, 325
66.
Antonio Cassese (Independent Expert), “Report on the Special Court for Sierra Leone” (12 December 2006): 54
67.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 429
68.
Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Art. 1
69.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 437
70.
Ibid., 450
71.
Chandra Lekha Sriram, “Wrong-sizing International Justice? The Hybrid Tribunal in Sierra Leone”, Fordam International Law Journal 29 (2005): 481
72.
Ibid.
73.
Jimenez, “Hybrid Tribunals as Capacity Building”, 30
74.
Ibid., 31
75.
Sriram, “Wrong-sizing International Justice?”, 499
76.
Ibid., 503
77.
Higonnet, “Restructuring Hybrid Courts”, 13
78.
Jimenez, “Hybrid Tribunals as Capacity Building”, 32
79.
Mieth, “Bringing Justice and Enforcing Peace?”, 5
80.
Among others, see McAuliffe, “Hybrid Tribunal at Ten”, 36
81.
Ibid., 41
82.
Ibid., 42
83.
Arzt, “Views on the Ground”, 243
84.
Luban et al., International and Transnational Criminal Law, 178
85.
Glasius and Meijers, “Constructions of Legitimacy”, 249
86.
Ibid., 247
87.
Dana, “The Sentencing Legacy of the Special Court of Sierra Leone”, 676
88.
Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Art. 1
89.
Evenson, “Truth and Justice in Sierra Leone”, 763
90.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 428
91.
Ibid., 424
92.
McAuliffe, “Hybrid Tribunal at Ten”, 54
93.
Dana, “The Sentencing Legacy of the Special Court of Sierra Leone”, 655
94.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 418
95.
Ibid., 459
96.
Kelsall, Culture Under Cross-Examination
97.
Graeme Young, “Transitional Justice in Sierra Leone: A Critical Analysis”, United Nations Peace and Progress 1 (1): 3–17
98.
Kelsall, Culture Under Cross-Examination, 12
99.
Mieth, “Bringing Justice and Enforcing Peace?”, 5
100.
Ibid., 6
101.
Sativa January, “Tribunal Verite: Documenting Transitional Justice in Sierra Leone”, The International Journal of Transitional Justice 3(2009): 211
102.
Mieth, “Bringing Justice and Enforcing Peace?”, 7
103.
For more on childhood and its perception in different cultures and environments, see Allison James and Alan Prout, eds., Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood (London and New York: Routledge, 1997)
104.
Kelsall, Culture Under Cross-Examination., 151
105.
Gearoid Millar, “Disaggregating Hybridity: Why Hybrid Institutions Do Not Produce Predictable Experiences of Peace”, Journal of Peace Research 51(4) (2014): 507
106.
Mariane C. Ferme, “Archetypes of Humanitarian Discourse: Child Soldiers, Forced Marriage, and the Framing of Communities in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone”, Humanity 4(1) (2013): 63
107.
Kelsall, Culture Under Cross-Examination., 248
108.
Ibid., 106
109.
Young, “Transitional Justice in Sierra Leone: A Critical Analysis”, 8
110.
Nouwen, “Hybrid Courts”, 190–214
111.
Ibid.
112.
Jain, “Conceptualising Internationalisation in Hybrid Criminal Courts”, 88
113.
Millar, “Disaggregating Hybridity”, 503
114.
Ibid., 502
115.
Ibid.
116.
Ella Shohat, “Notes on the ‘Post-Colonial’”, Social Text 10(2–3) (1992) as quoted in Peterson, “A Conceptual Unpacking of Hybridity”, 14
117.
Millar, “Disaggregating Hybridity”, 507
118.
For a description of the justice system in Sierra Leone in historical perspective (with specific emphasis on the influence of the British rule), see Steven Archibald and Paul Richards, “Converts to Human Rights? Popular Debate about War and Justice in Rural Central Sierra Leone”, Africa 72(3) (2002): 343
119.
Jalloh, “Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?”, 453
120.
Luban et al., International and Transnational Criminal Law, 170
121.
Millar, “Disaggregating Hybridity”, 510
122.
Jimenez, “Hybrid Tribunals as Capacity Building”, 47

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Giada Girelli

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Girelli, G. (2017). The Hybrid Experiment: Assessing the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In: Understanding Transitional Justice. Philosophy, Public Policy, and Transnational Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53606-4_8

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53606-4_8
Published: 24 June 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53605-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53606-4
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