Contents of Volume 8(1)
Articles
Dr. Michal Tamir and Judge Amir Dahan, Side Judges: The Case of the Israeli Military Courts
The study is an empirical-quantitative one and examines a random continuous sample of cases heard by a joint expert and non-expert panel and a sample of cases heard by an expert panel. Among the values considered are: type of offence; duration of the case; type and degree of punishment; and the relationship between the indictment and the verdict. The findings indicate that the transition to a panel of experts has led to a higher rate of amendments made to indictments ,a higher rate of acquittals, a greater volume of legal and factual references as well as more detailed reasoning in the judgments and verdicts, a rise in the level of reliance on legal sources, and a greater number of dissenting opinions in the judgments.
Buhm-Suk, Baek, The Medium Forseeing The Future: The Role of NHRIs in Creating RHRIs in The Asia-Pacific Region
Still today, the Asia-Pacific region faces very particular challenges in terms of human rights, as well as in terms of the existing structures available to address human rights violations... Moreover, structures of support, either at the national or regional level are often absent in the Asia-Pacific region. The region ... has no comprehensive human rights instrument and no human rights mechanism yet. Governments in the region are often reluctant to cooperate with the international human rights system ... Therefore we strongly support national human rights institutions to play an effective role in developing and consolidating credible human rights stems in the region ... Once firmly in place, national human rights institutions should as much as possible seek to develop regional and sub-regional ties with sister institutions.
Notes From The Field
G. Hargopal, The Maoist Movement and The Indian State: Meditating Peace
This note is an account of the mediation/ negotiation at two separate kidnapping incidents- in Gurtendu in Andhra Pradesh in 1987 and in Malkangiri in Orissa in February 2011 (in which the author was personally involved). It examines the response of the State, the ensuing peace talks and analzes whether any democratic spaces were opened up consequently.
Book Review
Parvathi Menon, A Liberal Theory of International Justice
The 'Statist order', which is at the centre of international law's defining characteristic and source, used as the legal premise upon which States base their arguments, is an artificial order, at best. Who creates norms in international law and thereafter, who is required to respect it once it has acquired the status of a customary norm, reflects on the world of 'equal and autonomous sovereigns' imagined by those who engage in the sources argument. Thus, it is said to create a normative order where the States make the laws (or exist as an external normative order beyond the States, binding them). It is well accepted that the notion of 'sovereignty' as the power that comes with one's factual existence as a State, does not lie with the State alone anymore. The decision-makers in the various nooks and crannies of our socio-economic fabric exert their control, thus reconfiguring and disintegrating state sovereignty at different levels: below the State and above the State. The book turns a blind eye to this important development in international law and covers a number of issues that turn the focus back to the mainstream statist approach to the discipline.