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Universal Jurisdiction: The Dilemma of International Justice
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2010
Instituto Cervantes Chicago, Auditorium
31 W Ohio
312-335-1996
5:30 p.m. Registration
6:00 p.m. Presentation and discussion
7:15 p.m. Program adjournment
General admission: $20
UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION: THE DILEMMA OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE
Baltasar Garzón, Judge, Criminal Court of Spain
In conversation with David J. Scheffer, Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues , during President Bill Clinton’s second term in office and Director, Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law
Universal jurisdiction – a principle in international law where states can claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of any relation with the prosecuting country – is a divisive subject within the international legal community that has both its champions and detractors. Proponents of universal jurisdiction claim that certain crimes pose so serious a threat to the international community that states have a logical and moral duty to prosecute those individuals deemed responsible. Opponents counter that the concept is a breach of state sovereignty, and that universal jurisdiction tribunals could quickly degenerate into politically-driven show trials that attempt to punish a state’s enemies. Please join The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago for a special discussion with Judge Baltasar Garzón on the benefits, risks, and limits of universal jurisdiction.
Baltasar Garzón is a Spanish judge currently seated on the Criminal Court of Spain. He is one of the examining magistrate who investigates the most important criminal cases in Spain. Garzón rose to prominence as an international figure with his indictment of leaders of the former Chilean military junta, including the ailing dictator Augusto Pinochet, on charges of genocide, terrorism and torture.
Garzón has also played a key role in indicting suspected Basque terrorists. In May 1998, he disbanded KAS (Koordinora Arbetzale Sozialista), an association of indepedence groups, on the grounds that it was in fact a strategic arm of the ETA organization.
In 2008, Garzón formally declared the acts of repression committed by the Franco regime to becrimes against humanity, and accounted them in more than one hundred thousand killings during and after the Spanish Civil War. He also ordered the exhumation of 19 unmarked mass graves, one of them believed to contain the remains of the poet Federico García Lorca.
He has campaigned strongly against the 2003 Iraq war and he fiercely criticized the detention of al-Qaida suspects inGuantanamo Bay, Cuba.
