The Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL)

This research arises as a result of my personal experience of the 11 year civil war in Sierra Leone, and an interest in the Sierra Leone Government (SLG) and the International Community’s (IC) commitment to render international standard of justice in post-conflict Sierra Leone. The aim of this research thesis is to investigate the extent to which the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) that was established in 2002, was successful in its application of justice during the period of its judicial practice, and how its jurisprudential process can be replicated. International Criminal Law (ICL) is a relatively new discipline. Through the practice of ICL, individuals are held directly responsible for the perpetration of serious international crimes. By the time that the SCSL was established in June 2002, there was jurisprudence and practice, though rather limited in nature. The SCSL was therefore able to build on past experience but also innovate to meet the complex demands for justice and stability after the atrocities committed in the civil war. The SCSL model is particularly intriguing because of its unique hybrid nature, and it scored a number of unprecedented firsts during its operational period. It is the degree of hybrid administration, legal sources and judicial and prosecutorial teams – which, inter alia, allowed the court to draw on domestic expertise – that gives the SCSL its legitimacy and which may have contributed to its apparent legacy success in achieving justice and helping to build stability. Given its unique degree of hybridity, the SCSL is a potential model for future hybrid courts and tribunals to learn from. The SCSL trials and judgments also set precedents for prosecuting perpetrators of international crimes of child soldiering and forced marriage and those of a similar nature. The SCSL hybrid tribunal has already influenced the later practice of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ICL. In terms of research methodology, I am using both theories of justice and an interpretive community lens to answer the research question: How successful was the SCSL in delivering justice in Sierra Leone and what are the implications of its specific hybrid nature? In summary, my research focuses on an evaluation and analysis of the success of the SCSL model, and its unusual degree of hybridity and legacy, and interrogates the jurisprudence of the SCSL through an analytical framework including the incorporation of the theories of justice and interpretive community perspectives, thereby producing original independent research which will have a potential contribution to make to knowledge in the field of International Criminal Law scholarship. ‘This thesis states the law as of 30th September 2018.’

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Fullah, Alfred Amadu Veenod

Contributors dc:contributor

• Edge, Peter
• Kliem, Tobias
• Sedman, Dawn
• Cheyne, Ilona

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/QA29-CH25

OAI identifier oai:identifier

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