Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony sold as the Spoils of War

This paper analyses the critical influences on witness-based truth-telling for judicial decision-making in the international criminal tribunals. The judicial fixation on witness testimony reflects the weight and legitimacy given to personal testimony before international courts. This weight must be...

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Main Authors: FINDLAY, Mark, Ngane, Sylvia
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2012
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1166
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/3118/viewcontent/ShamMoralCourt.pdf
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spelling sg-smu-ink.sol_research-31182017-03-22T01:15:01Z Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony sold as the Spoils of War FINDLAY, Mark Ngane, Sylvia This paper analyses the critical influences on witness-based truth-telling for judicial decision-making in the international criminal tribunals. The judicial fixation on witness testimony reflects the weight and legitimacy given to personal testimony before international courts. This weight must be balanced by the awareness that a witness may provide false testimony intentionally, or may be coaxed by third parties to provide such testimony, as has been evidenced recently before the ICC. If witness testimony is tainted then its capacity to endorse the truth-finding function of the court is compromised. As a consequence the ability to assert that the tribunal is a ‘moral court’ based on empirical truth in such circumstances is jeopardized. The nexus between witness testimony, truth, the morality of judicial determinations, and the legitimacy this affords is explored in what follows. We question whether simple assertions that witness testimony, tested through adversarial examination, produces truth and resultant morality, are all they seem. The analysis also critiques the forensic reality of witness testimony before the international tribunals. Ultimately the paper suggests that while truthful testimony is crucial if international criminal trials are to produce legitimate judicial determinations, the naïve claim to a moral court as a consequence of tested witness testimony is problematic at least and unsustainable at best. 2012-03-01T08:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1166 info:doi/10.1163/2211906X-00101003 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/3118/viewcontent/ShamMoralCourt.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University International Criminal Court truth legitimacy witness testimony judicial discretion selective prosecution moral court Comparative and Foreign Law Criminal Law Human Rights Law
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic International Criminal Court
truth
legitimacy
witness testimony
judicial discretion
selective prosecution
moral court
Comparative and Foreign Law
Criminal Law
Human Rights Law
spellingShingle International Criminal Court
truth
legitimacy
witness testimony
judicial discretion
selective prosecution
moral court
Comparative and Foreign Law
Criminal Law
Human Rights Law
FINDLAY, Mark
Ngane, Sylvia
Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony sold as the Spoils of War
description This paper analyses the critical influences on witness-based truth-telling for judicial decision-making in the international criminal tribunals. The judicial fixation on witness testimony reflects the weight and legitimacy given to personal testimony before international courts. This weight must be balanced by the awareness that a witness may provide false testimony intentionally, or may be coaxed by third parties to provide such testimony, as has been evidenced recently before the ICC. If witness testimony is tainted then its capacity to endorse the truth-finding function of the court is compromised. As a consequence the ability to assert that the tribunal is a ‘moral court’ based on empirical truth in such circumstances is jeopardized. The nexus between witness testimony, truth, the morality of judicial determinations, and the legitimacy this affords is explored in what follows. We question whether simple assertions that witness testimony, tested through adversarial examination, produces truth and resultant morality, are all they seem. The analysis also critiques the forensic reality of witness testimony before the international tribunals. Ultimately the paper suggests that while truthful testimony is crucial if international criminal trials are to produce legitimate judicial determinations, the naïve claim to a moral court as a consequence of tested witness testimony is problematic at least and unsustainable at best.
format text
author FINDLAY, Mark
Ngane, Sylvia
author_facet FINDLAY, Mark
Ngane, Sylvia
author_sort FINDLAY, Mark
title Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony sold as the Spoils of War
title_short Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony sold as the Spoils of War
title_full Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony sold as the Spoils of War
title_fullStr Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony sold as the Spoils of War
title_full_unstemmed Sham of the Moral Court? Testimony sold as the Spoils of War
title_sort sham of the moral court? testimony sold as the spoils of war
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2012
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1166
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/3118/viewcontent/ShamMoralCourt.pdf
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