On May 2, 2024, Liberian President Joseph Boakai signed an executive order establishing a United Nations-backed war crimes court. This historic achievement is the culmination of years of advocacy, both within Liberia and internationally, to create a forum to investigate and prosecute gross violations of human rights law and humanitarian law that occurred during Liberia’s two civil wars, which ended over two decades ago. President Boakai’s goal of “bringing a just, healed, and reconciled finality to the issues of that ugly period of our past” is a lofty one. Thankfully, Liberia and its international allies will not be reinventing the wheel. If the Liberian court is established using the draft statute produced by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it will be largely imitative of other hybrid tribunals that have been established in post-conflict regions across the globe — most notably in Sierra Leone, Liberia’s sister state. The hope for the Liberian court, as it is with all other hybrid courts, is that delivering justice in close geographic, political, and social proximity…
Special Court for Sierra Leone
SCSL Appeals Chamber Affirms Charles Taylor’s Conviction
Today the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone unanimously upheld the conviction of Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, and affirmed the Trial Chamber's sentence of 50 years imprisonment. The judgment is available here; a short press release here. The judgment is very long and will take some time to digest. Symbolically…
Why the Special Court for Sierra Leone Should Establish an Independent Commission to Address Alternate Judge Sow’s Allegation in the Charles Taylor Case
Charles C. Jalloh is Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.; formerly the Legal Advisor to the Office of the Principal Defender, Special Court for Sierra Leone and duty counsel to former Liberian President Charles Taylor. He blogs at International Criminal Law in Ferment Introduction…
The Verdict in the Charles Taylor Case and the Alternate Judge’s “Dissenting Opinion”
Charles Jalloh is Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.; formerly the Legal Advisor to the Office of the Principal Defender, Special Court for Sierra Leone and duty counsel to former Liberian President Charles Taylor. He blogs at International Criminal Law in Ferment and we are grateful to him for accepting our…
Blood Diamonds: Supermodel Naomi Campbell may be compelled to Testify at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. (Updated)
Sylvia Ngane is a doctoral candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the School of Law, University of Leeds, UK. Her article "Witnesses Before the International Criminal Court" is published in (2009) 8 Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals 431-457. Editor's Note: In a decision issued on the same day this piece was…