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Curbing the Manipulation of Universal Jurisdiction

(Global Law Forum-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Diane Morrison and Justus Reid Weiner - The principle of universal jurisdiction has been, and continues to be, an important tool in the legal practitioner's tool box and an essential means for achieving justice for international crimes. Unfortunately, the principle has also become a political device employed for far more cynical means and far less noble purposes. In the early 1960s, Israel was one of the first states to invoke the principle of universal jurisdiction in its groundbreaking trial against Adolf Eichmann, the "architect of the Holocaust." The abuse of the principle is not limited to attempts to delegitimize Israel. It has also been misused against U.S. officials, including former U.S. President George W. Bush. It was misused in both Germany and France against former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and in Spain against former White House staffers. Similarly, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been the subject of a record number of petitions against him in the International Criminal Court. These universal jurisdiction claims interfere broadly with international diplomatic affairs and international business, constitute a publicity coup for those instituting the claims (regardless of the outcome), drain legal resources, and mire truly lofty principles in political opportunism. Henry Kissinger wrote in Foreign Affairs in 2001: "Any universal system should contain procedures not only to punish the wicked but also to constrain the righteous. It must not allow legal principles to be used as weapons to settle political scores."
2010-01-20 08:19:27
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