The Challenges of the International Court Justice
The primary problem of the court of any level and country is its accordance with the justice as an imperative, and the consistency of criminal procedure as a justice process. Elias (2013) argues that it is a difficult task to define whether the case, in general meaning of the word, can go under the jurisdiction of the court. Moreover, one may doubt the ability of the court to perform an act of justice due to the particular circumstances and people involved in the process, for instance, judges, court personnel, crime offenders, and victims. Elias (2013) also states that litigants by themselves may reject the authority of the court, and neither attend the hearings nor obey its decisions. Whatever issues the administrator of the court faces, the problem of the consistency of the court with the justice is the underlying ground. Therefore, any element of court’s functions is important, be it a legal, social, or ethical aspect of the justice.
The definition and performance of victim rights are challenged by the novelty of this concept for the criminal justice and court practice. Hill (2013) claimed that the movement towards inclusion of the victim to the criminal process demonstated some significant actions only at the end of XX century. She explains that some concepts, say victim impact statement (VIS), are quite uncommon to the stereotypical justice and general publicity. For instance, VIS supposes the court to evaluate the crime by the actions the offender committed but on the impact of the offense, the victim experienced. Another issue of victim rights is their delegation. While the victim naturally obtains its rights and duties, some other stakeholders “such as family members or rescue workers” may be involved in the justice process too (Hill, 2013, p. 1). While the process of victim rights definition have begun in XVIII century when “by replacing “Victim v. Offender” with “State v. Offender” in court pleadings” (Hill, 2013, p. 3), the concept is still under development which results in numerous flaws of victim right enforcement.
References
Elias, T. (2013). The International Court of Justice and some contemporary problems: Essays on international law (1st ed.). Springer Science & Business Media.
Hill, J. (2013). Victim Impact Statements. The Encyclopedia Of Criminology And Criminal Justice, 1-4. …
