This work deals with the exclusion of illicitly obtained evidence at the International Criminal Court. At the level of domestic law, the so-called exclusionary rule has always been a very prominent topic. The reason for this is that the way a court of law deals with tainted evidence pertains to a key aspect of procedural fairness. It concerns the balancing of the right to a fair trial with the interest of society in effective law enforcement. At the international level, however, the subject has not yet been discussed in detail. The present research intends to fill this gap. It provides an overview of the approaches of a number of domestic legal systems as well as of the approaches of the UN ad hoc tribunals and the European Court of Human Rights and uses the different perspectives to develop a version of the exclusionary rule which fits the International Criminal Court.

The book is highly recommended for practitioners and researchers in the field of international criminal law and especially the law of international criminal evidence.

Petra Viebig is a Public Prosecutor at the Staatsanwaltschaft Hamburg, Germany.

Inhalt

Introduction.- Legal sources and legal methodology under the ICC Statute.- Previous approaches to the exclusion of illicitly obtained evidence.- The development of an approach to the exclusion of evidence by the International Criminal Court.- Factors in the balancing exercise.- The relation between the violation and the evidence.- Procedural aspects.- Conclusion and outlook.