Lunch seminar with Gabrielė Chlevickaitė
Witness Evidence And Legal Decision Making: Empirical And Normative Analyses Of International Criminal Justice
Abstract:
Establishing the legal ‘truth’, through fair and reliable fact-finding underlies the multitude of goals ascribed to international criminal courts and tribunals. However, legal fact-finding is subject to the quantity and quality of evidence available to decision-makers, and their ability to accurately assess the evidence presented. Consequently, problems of evidence may frustrate the discovery of substantive and legal truths, as has been continuously observed at international criminal courts and tribunals, especially where factual findings depend on particularly problematic witnesses: insiders.
However, to date, we know surprisingly little about how legal practitioners decide whether to rely on a particular (insider) witness. Assessing the practice is imperative to understanding whether, and if so, how international criminal fact-finding could be improved. Hence, this study aims to answer this question: What factors impact insider witness credibility and reliability and how are they assessed in the investigations and prosecutions of international criminal cases?
For this purpose, I conducted a systematic analysis of the ICTY, ICTR, and ICC trial judgements (N=93) and other case-related documents from 1996 to 2019, alongside an experimental vignette study with international criminal law practitioners (N=160). The findings uncover the extent of witness-related issues at ICCTs, and illuminate the dilemmas faced by legal practitioners in determining whether, and to what extent, insider witness evidence can be relied upon. They also show that when it comes to assessing insider witnesses, a shared understanding of what is credible, what is reliable, and how to go about determining which is which, still needs to be developed. This highlights the importance of training, development of standard operating procedures and empirically supported guidelines for witness assessments.
The findings of this study bring me to an introduction of a new research project, on the practices and standards of witness evidence collection by civil society actors in the context of conflict-related crimes in Ukraine.
Relevant publications
- Chlevickaitė, G. (2023). Towards a Model of (Insider) Witness Assessments in International Crime Cases: An Experimental Vignette Study. International Criminal Justice Review, 0(0).
https://doi-org.vu-nl.idm.oclc.org/1177/10575677221126903 - Chlevickaitė, G., Holá, B. and Bijleveld, C. (2021). Suspicious Minds? Empirical Analysis of Insider Witness Assessments at the ICTY, ICTR and ICC. European Journal of Criminology
- Chlevickaitė, G., Holá, B. and Bijleveld, C. (2020). Judicial Witness Assessments at the ICTY, ICTR and ICC. Journal of International Criminal Justice 18(1).
Author bio
Gabrielė Chlevickaitė is Assistant Professor in Empirical and Normative Studies at the VU Amsterdam, where she conducts research into fact-finding in international criminal investigations and teaches at International Crimes, Conflict and Criminology MSc program and International Criminal Justice summer school at VU Amsterdam. She is concurrently a co-director of the Center for International Criminal Justice (CICJ, www.cicj.org), an interdisciplinary research centre at the VU Amsterdam.
In 2017, Gabrielė was awarded NWO Research Talent Grant to conduct doctoral research on insider witness assessments at international criminal courts and tribunals. In 2017-2021 she worked at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) in Amsterdam as a PhD candidate and was a fellow at the CICJ. She defended her dissertation in March 2022. Besides PhD research, in 2019, Gabriele was awarded (alongside a team led by Dr Anna Sagana of Maastricht University), a Constructive Advanced Thinking Interdisciplinary Research Mobility Grant for project ‘A Psychological approach to international criminal justice. Improving decision making in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.’
In 2015 Gabrielė graduated with an MSc in International Crimes and Criminology (cum laude) at VU Amsterdam. During and after the university studies, she interned and worked at the International Criminal Court, Investigations Division of the Office of the Prosecutor (2014-2017). During the years at the ICC, Gabrielė gained experience in investigative analysis and methods, which brought the topic international criminal fact-finding to her attention.
Meeting ID: 666 3983 2595
Passcode: 807731