News

The 2015 SLSA Annual Conference will be hosted by Warwick School of Law, 31 March - 2 April 2015.

The call for papers for the 2015 SLSA annual conference is now open. Abstracts for papers are invited for the streams and themes listed on the conference website, including (but not limited to!) Criminal Law and Criminal Justice; International Criminal Justice: Theory, Policy and Practice; Renewing Critique in Criminal Justice; Sentencing and Punishment. Poster ideas are also welcomed.

Abstracts should be submitted via the submission system ‘EasyChair’. Instructions about how to submit to EasyChair and further details of the calls within each stream and theme are available on the conference website www.warwick.ac.uk/slsa

The deadline for submission is Monday 19 January 2015.

The Midlands Branch of the British Society of Criminology organises events that might be of interest to CJC members.

Theme: Crime Drop

4th March 2015 (4-6pm), Loughborough University

Speakers:
Professor Sylvia Walby OBE, Lancaster University
Professor Stephen Farrall, University of Sheffield
Professor Nick Tilley, University College London

Contact: Professor Andromachi Tseloni: a.tseloni@lboro.ac.uk

Theme: Futures of Imprisonment

May 2015 (6-8pm), Nottingham University (date and room to be confirmed)

Speakers:
Professor Dirk van Zyl Smit
Dr Evi Girling
Dr Melanie Jordan

Contact: Professor Bill Dixon: William.Dixon@nottingham.ac.uk

Professor Jacqueline Hodgson, one of several experts in the case of Hassan Diab, who was extradited to France on Friday after six years of legal proceedings in Canada, has described the situation as “troubling”. She provided evidence about the investigation and prosecution procedure in terrorism cases in France, in particular, the problematic nature of using unsourced intelligence.

Her comment in full: “The case of Hassan Diab, a 60-year-old sociology professor who has been extradited to France, is a troubling one. France has charged Diab with first degree murder in relation to the Rue Copernic terrorist bombing in Paris in 1980, which killed four people and injured dozens more.

“The evidence against him hinges firstly on unsourced intelligence that would be inadmissible in a criminal court in England and Wales (reliability cannot be tested if the source of information and the manner in which it was obtained are unknown); and secondly on the opinion of a handwriting expert described as wholly unreliable by five of the world's leading handwriting analysts.

“The opportunity to challenge the evidence presented by the requesting state in extradition proceedings in Canada is limited. The Ontario Superior Court judge, who originally committed Diab for extradition, did so despite acknowledging the weakness of the French case.”

The closing and oral statements in the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo are taking place this week at the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he is charged with crimes committed in the Central African Republic (CAR).

It is a judgement that has ground-breaking potential for more than one reason, says Solange Mouthaan, Associate Professor at The University of Warwick’s School of Law.

An expert on legal protection of minorities and the effective protection of individuals through the International Criminal Court, she said: “Most importantly, this is the first hearing before the ICC to place crimes of sexual violence against women, men and children, used as a “tool” to terrorise the civilian population, at the forefront of the case.

“As a consequence, the judgment could potentially become a landmark decision for the prosecution of gender-based crimes. The presence of an all-female bench is therefore also noteworthy, because it puts women at the forefront of decision-making in a trial focussed on gender-based offences.

“Finally, this is the first case before the ICC of a high level accused for command responsibility for crimes committed by subordinates. As military commander he had effective authority and control of the MLC troops and he failed to control or punish in order to prevent these crimes from taking place.”

The prosecution focuses on atrocities, in particular murder, pillage and rape, committed in the 2002-2003 coup in CAR by Bemba then vice-president of the DRC, but also the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC).

The ICC, the first permanent criminal tribunal to try international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes has charged Bemba with two counts of crimes against humanity (murder and rape) and three counts of war crimes (murder, rape and pillaging).

The Centre for Operational Policing Research (COPR) are holding a networking lunch and we'd like to reach out to all researchers working on policing in the University.

Time: 8th December (the Monday after term ends), 12:00-14:30

Location: IAS Seminar Room, Milburn House

For more and registration: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/copr/newsandevents/networking_lunch/

Do pass this invitation along if you know someone somewhere else in the University working on policing.