The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law

This article concerns the role and value of procedural and evidentiary scholarship in the rapidly developing field of International Criminal Law (ICL). It extrapolates and adapts to the international context two, distinct but related, lines of argument previously pitched at the domestic level. The f...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Roberts, Paul
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press 2015
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39308/
_version_ 1848795806604197888
author Roberts, Paul
author_facet Roberts, Paul
author_sort Roberts, Paul
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This article concerns the role and value of procedural and evidentiary scholarship in the rapidly developing field of International Criminal Law (ICL). It extrapolates and adapts to the international context two, distinct but related, lines of argument previously pitched at the domestic level. The first, broadly speaking jurisprudential, argument asserts ‘the priority of procedure’, challenging the widespread assumption that procedure is the merely adjectival handmaiden of substantive criminal law. The second, essentially methodological, argument advocates a conception of ‘evidence and proof’ extending beyond doctrinal rules to encompass sustained analysis of factual evidence, logical inferential reasoning, and forensic argumentation. One particular analytical method — Wigmore charting — is illustrated as offering a set of practical tools for supporting criminal litigation, in international no less than domestic proceedings. Though ICL scholarship has from the outset taken a commendably keen interest in procedural questions, there is scope for broader and deeper engagement with procedural and evidentiary issues, with potential for enriching both the theory and the practice of international criminal law. (And ICL might then repay the compliment by broadening the conventional disciplinary horizons of Evidence and Proof and Criminal Law Theory scholarship.)
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:37:56Z
format Article
id nottingham-39308
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:37:56Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Oxford University Press
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-393082020-04-29T15:13:32Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39308/ The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law Roberts, Paul This article concerns the role and value of procedural and evidentiary scholarship in the rapidly developing field of International Criminal Law (ICL). It extrapolates and adapts to the international context two, distinct but related, lines of argument previously pitched at the domestic level. The first, broadly speaking jurisprudential, argument asserts ‘the priority of procedure’, challenging the widespread assumption that procedure is the merely adjectival handmaiden of substantive criminal law. The second, essentially methodological, argument advocates a conception of ‘evidence and proof’ extending beyond doctrinal rules to encompass sustained analysis of factual evidence, logical inferential reasoning, and forensic argumentation. One particular analytical method — Wigmore charting — is illustrated as offering a set of practical tools for supporting criminal litigation, in international no less than domestic proceedings. Though ICL scholarship has from the outset taken a commendably keen interest in procedural questions, there is scope for broader and deeper engagement with procedural and evidentiary issues, with potential for enriching both the theory and the practice of international criminal law. (And ICL might then repay the compliment by broadening the conventional disciplinary horizons of Evidence and Proof and Criminal Law Theory scholarship.) Oxford University Press 2015-06-14 Article PeerReviewed Roberts, Paul (2015) The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 13 (3). pp. 479-506. ISSN 1478-1395 https://academic.oup.com/jicj/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/jicj/mqv021 doi:10.1093/jicj/mqv021 doi:10.1093/jicj/mqv021
spellingShingle Roberts, Paul
The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law
title The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law
title_full The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law
title_fullStr The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law
title_full_unstemmed The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law
title_short The priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law
title_sort priority of procedure and the neglect of evidence and proof: facing facts in international criminal law
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39308/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39308/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39308/