Jones, Annika --- "Judicial cross-referencing in the sentencing practice of international(ized) criminal courts and tribunals" [2016] ELECD 774; in Mulgrew, Róisín; Abels, Denis (eds), "Research Handbook on the International Penal System" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 167

Book Title: Research Handbook on the International Penal System

Editor(s): Mulgrew, Róisín; Abels, Denis

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783472154

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Judicial cross-referencing in the sentencing practice of international(ized) criminal courts and tribunals

Author(s): Jones, Annika

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

The statutes of international(ized) criminal courts and tribunals have given judges a significant degree of discretion in determining the sentences to be imposed on individuals found guilty of the commission of international crimes. Even the highly detailed ICCSt offers just ‘a few laconic provisions establishing the maximum available sentence and, by and large, leaving the determination in specific cases to the judges’. Judges have been left to determine, inter alia, the specific goals and objectives to be achieved through the sentencing process, the principles that govern the determination of sentences by international(ized) courts and tribunals, the full range of factors that should be taken into account in the sentencing process and the weight to be given to them. As judges have encountered these issues they have shown a tendency to refer not only to their own previous decisions, but also to the decisions of other international(ized) and domestic criminal courts and tribunals, and to do so with considerable frequency. The tendency of judges to refer to external jurisprudence on sentencing issues can be viewed as part of a broad, and growing, interaction between various international(ized), regional and domestic courts and tribunals, both within and beyond the field of international criminal law.