{"id":329076,"date":"2010-02-16T18:03:25","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T23:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opiniojuris.org\/?p=11333"},"modified":"2010-02-16T18:03:25","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T23:03:25","slug":"appeals-chamber-treats-dr-k-like-josef-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/329076","title":{"rendered":"Appeals Chamber Treats Dr. K Like Josef K"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kevin Jon Heller <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What a shock: the Appeals Chamber has upheld<\/a> Richard Harvey’s appointment as stand-by counsel.\u00a0 I would engage in a detailed account of its reasoning, but the short decision — 16 pages, only five of which are analysis — provides none.\u00a0 Here, for example, is the AC’s response to the heart of Dr. Karadzic’s challenge, the irrationality of the procedures the Registrar used to select Harvey (para. 34):<\/p>\n

\n

Karadzic fails to establish that the Trial Chamber inappropriately applied the Kvokca<\/em> test.\u00a0 In selecting Harvey as standby counsel, the Registrar considered a number of factors, including (i) conflicts of interest; (ii) availability for appointment as standby counsel; (iii) counsel having no reservations about being imposed; (iv) previous experience before the Tribunal; and (v) geographic proximity.\u00a0 None of the specific examples of allegedly unfair\u00a0 or arbitrary reasoning Karadzic\u00a0 raises demonstrate that the Trial Chamber abused its discretion in finding that the Registrar appropriately exercised his discretion.\u00a0 More specifically, the Appeals Chamber is satisfied that the Trial Chamber acted within its discretion in concluding that the Registrar’s application of pre-screening neither contravened any legal requirement nor was unfair or nonsensical.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That’s it.\u00a0 That’s the “analysis.”\u00a0 No attempt to respond to any of Dr. Karadzic’s arguments, just brute force claims that everything is fine.\u00a0 We’re the Appeals Chamber, we can do what we want.\u00a0 Deal with it.<\/p>\n

That’s appalling, but I guess it’s also unsurprising.\u00a0 After all, it’s not like the Appeals Chamber could<\/em> have<\/em> defended the procedures.\u00a0 Indeed, I pity the poor judge who tried to actually explain how the Registrar’s conflict of interest requirement<\/a> was neither “unfair or nonsensical,” even though the Registrar used it to exclude numerous barristers who did not have actual conflicts (because the requirement did not require actual adversity) and include one, Colleen Rohan, who did.\u00a0 Were I the judge, I would have said “screw it, let’s just claim it all makes sense,” too.<\/p>\n

The Appeals Chamber should be embarrassed by its latest “decision.”\u00a0 And anyone who cares about the legacy of the ICTY, no matter how they feel about Dr. Karadzic, should be ashamed that this is what now passes for “analysis” in the Tribunal’s final and most important case.\u00a0 The stain that Judge Hunt decried years ago spreads ever wider with each passing day.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kevin Jon Heller What a shock: the Appeals Chamber has upheld Richard Harvey’s appointment as stand-by counsel.\u00a0 I would engage in a detailed account of its reasoning, but the short decision — 16 pages, only five of which are analysis — provides none.\u00a0 Here, for example, is the AC’s response to the heart of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}