TY - JOUR
T1 - Unfitness to Stand Trial under International Criminal Law
T2 - The Influential Decision of the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia in relation to Pavle Strugar and its Ramifications
AU - Freckelton QC, Ian
AU - Karagiannakis, Magda
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Fitness to stand trial constitutes a fundamental threshold for participation in criminal justice. Although there has been extensive jurisprudence on the subject under international law, the 2008 Strugar decision by the Appellate Chamber of the ICTY provides the major authority for guiding subsequent decisions of the International Criminal Court and other tribunals on the subject. This article reviews the reasoning of the decision and highlights its limitations. Having regard to some of the difficult scenarios in which fitness to stand trial decisions have needed to be made under international criminal law, it reflects on potential improvements to the Strugar formulation by the introduction of rationality considerations to decision-making on the subject.
AB - Fitness to stand trial constitutes a fundamental threshold for participation in criminal justice. Although there has been extensive jurisprudence on the subject under international law, the 2008 Strugar decision by the Appellate Chamber of the ICTY provides the major authority for guiding subsequent decisions of the International Criminal Court and other tribunals on the subject. This article reviews the reasoning of the decision and highlights its limitations. Having regard to some of the difficult scenarios in which fitness to stand trial decisions have needed to be made under international criminal law, it reflects on potential improvements to the Strugar formulation by the introduction of rationality considerations to decision-making on the subject.
KW - capacity to communicate
KW - capacity to understand
KW - competence
KW - fitness to stand trial
KW - ICTY
KW - international criminal law
KW - mental illness
KW - physical illness
KW - rationality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84903390162&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13218719.2014.934764
DO - 10.1080/13218719.2014.934764
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84903390162
SN - 1321-8719
VL - 21
SP - 611
EP - 621
JO - Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
JF - Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
IS - 4
ER -