Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Evidence Supporting International Criminal Convictions
- 2 Questions Unanswered: International Witnesses and the Information Unconveyed
- 3 The Educational, Linguistic, and Cultural Impediments to Accurate Fact-Finding at the International Tribunals
- 4 Of Inconsistencies and Their Explanations
- 5 Perjury: The Counternarrative
- 6 Expectations Unfulfilled: The Consequences of the Fact-Finding Impediments
- 7 Casual Indifference: The Trial Chambers' Treatment of Testimonial Deficiencies
- 8 Organizational Liability Revived: The Pro-Conviction Bias Explained
- 9 Help Needed: Practical Suggestions and Procedural Reforms to Improve Fact-Finding Accuracy
- 10 Assessing the Status Quo: They Are Not Doing What They Say They Are Doing, but Is What They Are Doing Worth Doing?
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Questions Unanswered: International Witnesses and the Information Unconveyed
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Evidence Supporting International Criminal Convictions
- 2 Questions Unanswered: International Witnesses and the Information Unconveyed
- 3 The Educational, Linguistic, and Cultural Impediments to Accurate Fact-Finding at the International Tribunals
- 4 Of Inconsistencies and Their Explanations
- 5 Perjury: The Counternarrative
- 6 Expectations Unfulfilled: The Consequences of the Fact-Finding Impediments
- 7 Casual Indifference: The Trial Chambers' Treatment of Testimonial Deficiencies
- 8 Organizational Liability Revived: The Pro-Conviction Bias Explained
- 9 Help Needed: Practical Suggestions and Procedural Reforms to Improve Fact-Finding Accuracy
- 10 Assessing the Status Quo: They Are Not Doing What They Say They Are Doing, but Is What They Are Doing Worth Doing?
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The defense witness Celestino Dasibere appeared to the Court to be completely confused and unreliable: the transcript of the hearing is a cold medium and can not convey the sense of displacement and incapability to express intelligible concepts that affected the witness. Mr. Dasibere looked as a source of inextricable untrustworthiness and smoky ideas. Apart from the confession of the unreliability of his memory, the witness repeatedly showed to base his recollection of the facts on the quick sands of a fragile memory, ready to affirm one concept and to negate it immediately after. There's a sense of consternation left after hearing such witness: the Court doesn't want to base any factual finding on his words.
– Prosecutor v. Francisco Perreira, Special Panel for Serious Crimes, Case No. 34/2003, Judgement at 25 (Apr. 27, 2005)International criminal trials employ Western-style criminal procedures that presuppose a smooth flow of questions and answers between counsel and witnesses. In particular, it is expected that, in response to counsel's questioning, eyewitnesses will convey the details of the events they witnessed in a form that the fact finder can both understand and critically evaluate. To be sure, clear communication between witnesses and fact finders is not always realized, even in domestic cases. Trials involving medical malpractice, product liability, and patent claims – to provide only a few examples – frequently feature testimony about scientific or technological issues that are difficult for witnesses to clearly explain and for fact finders to satisfactorily grasp.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fact-Finding without FactsThe Uncertain Evidentiary Foundations of International Criminal Convictions, pp. 21 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010