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Theorizing empirical court research: The test case of the trial of Hissène Habré

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2022

Sharon Weill ,
Kim Thuy Seelinger  and
Kerstin Bree Carlson
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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to advocate for new methods of studying international law. Hissène Habré, former President of Chad, was convicted by a hybrid tribunal in Dakar. Our book on this judicial process (The President on Trial: Prosecuting Hissène Habré, Oxford University Press, 2020) develops a novel empirical format of first-person testimonials, followed by expert analyses, to trace and contextualize the decades-long story of attempts to bring Habré to justice. The empirical materials collected in our book demonstrate that the Habré trial challenges a linear distribution of power from international (global) actors to local, demonstrating rather a series of horizontal relations between the local and international. Based on this research experience, the article lays out the method we developed. It facilitates an assessment of the legal and political impact of court decisions, routines and broader bureaucratic politics through which the practices of judging are constructed. “Justice” does not speak with one voice; it is made up of multiple actors with different professional interests and personal goals. It is also impacted by power dynamics and by the structure of the institution, including by institutional routine and legal bureaucracy.

Keywords

crimes against humanityinternational criminal justicehybrid tribunalsempirical researchsocio-legal methods
Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 103 , Issue 918: The Sahel , December 2021 , pp. 1073 - 1081
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the ICRC.

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References

1 Weill, Sharon, Seelinger, Kim Thuy and Carlson, Kerstin Bree (eds), The President on Trial: Prosecuting Hissène Habré, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2020CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Our method is inspired by socio-legal literature such as Latour, Bruno, The Making of Law. An Ethnography of the Conseil d'Etat, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2010Google Scholar (translation); Feeley, Malcolm M., The Process is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Criminal Court, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1979Google Scholar; Fassin, Didier and Kobelinsky, Carolina, “Comment on juge l'asile : l'institution comme agent moral”, Revue française de sociologie, Vol. 53, No. 4, 2012CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hodgson, Jacqueline, French Criminal Justice: A Comparative Account of the Investigation and Prosecution of Crime in France, Hart Publishing, Oxford and Portland, OR, 2005Google Scholar.

3 Prior to researching the EAC itself, Seelinger was involved in the development of an amicus curiae brief submitted to the court in December 2015, regarding the potential to charge sexual violence crimes according to the EAC statute and based on customary international law in effect during the 1980s.

4 Bourdieu, Pierre, “The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the Juridical Field”, Hastings Law Journal, Vol. 38, No. 5, 1987Google Scholar; Christensen, Mikkel J., “Crafting and Promoting International Crimes: A Controversy Between Legal Professionals of Core Crimes and Anti-Corruption”, Leiden Journal of International Law, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2017CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Bigo, Didier (ed.), The Field of the EU Internal Security Agencies, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2007Google Scholar.

6 Weill, Sharon, “Transnational Jihadism and the Role of Criminal Judges: An Ethnography of French Courts”, Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 47, No. S1, 2020CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weill, Sharon, "French Foreign Fighters: The Engagement of Administrative and Criminal Justice in France", International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 100, No. 907–909, 2018CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Carlson, Kerstin Bree, The Justice Laboratory: International Law in Africa, Chatham House/Brookings, London, 2022Google Scholar.