The Historical Application of Command Responsibility as Basis for Prosecuting Sexual Violence Crimes Under International Criminal Law: The Post-World War II Criminal Tribunals to Rome

by | Mar 4, 2024 | FUND, FUND V29I2

The Historical Application of Command Responsibility as Basis for Prosecuting Sexual Violence Crimes Under International Criminal Law: The Post-World War II Criminal Tribunals to Rome

Author Brenda Akia

ISSN: 2411-7870
Affiliations: LLB (Makere) LLM (Humboldt/UWC) LLD (Pret). Member of the UN CEDAW Committee
Source: Fundamina, Volume 29 Issue 2, p. 1-32
https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v29/i2a1

Abstract

The principle of command responsibility places a legal obligation on military commanders or civilian superiors to take reasonable and necessary steps to prevent and suppress commission of crimes, including sexual violence crimes by persons under their command, or to report to competent authorities if the crimes are committed. This contribution provides a historical analysis of the evolution of the codification and adjudication of command responsibility and its application to prosecute sexual violence crimes under international criminal law. Examining this historical evolution aims to provide legal practitioners with a clear understanding of how the doctrine of command responsibility found its way into contemporary international criminal law treaties, such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. This will assist legal practitioners to successfully apply command responsibility to prosecute sexual violence crimes and to better understand the interplay between international criminal law and international humanitarian law.

“Under the Whip” or Marital Violence, Cruelty and Drunkenness: Defining the Boundaries of Judicially Intolerable Marital Behaviour in the Cape Supreme Court, 1890–1900

by | Mar 4, 2024 | FUND, FUND V29I2

“Under the Whip” or Marital Violence, Cruelty and Drunkenness: Defining the Boundaries of Judicially Intolerable Marital Behaviour in the Cape Supreme Court, 1890–1900

Author Amanda Barratt

ISSN: 2411-7870
Affiliations: BA(Hons) (UCT) LLB LLM (Unisa) PhD (UCT). Associate Professor, Private Law, University of Cape Town
Source: Fundamina, Volume 29 Issue 2, p. 33-84
https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v29/i2a2

Abstract

This contribution explores marital violence in the Cape during the last decade of the nineteenth century. It is based on a comprehensive review of 587 matrimonial cases heard in the Cape Supreme Court over a ten-year period from January 1891 to December 1900. The study shows that marital violence had occurred in almost one quarter of the matrimonial suits finalised during that decade. The contribution explores the judicial response to violence within marriage. The optimal protection available to an abused wife was a judicial separation order. Such an order was available where continued cohabitation had become dangerous or “intolerable”. The research explores the kinds of marital behaviour deemed to be sufficiently intolerable to justify a separation order. While the Cape Supreme Court did not always provide abused wives with the protection of a separation order, the court nevertheless expressed firm disapproval of physical abuse. It viewed continual drunkenness as intolerable behaviour, and also regarded both emotional and economic abuse as reprehensible. The contribution also takes a look at the community’s response to interspousal violence and at the prevailing societal views of appropriate behaviour for husbands and wives. The study further investigates the development of the companionate marriage as a partnership of equals. It shows that, by the late nineteenth century, wives were demanding more control within the marital consortium and further that contemporary societal expectations determined that marriages should be romantic relationships based on mutual affection. Law plays an important part in both reflecting and shaping social attitudes. The court rulings helped to shape the law by establishing the legal boundaries of so-called acceptable marital behaviour. These cases reveal the law’s role in shaping acceptable behaviour for husbands and wives respectively, reflecting and reinforcing gendered marital roles.

People for Sale: Tracing the Historical Roots of Slavery and Human Trafficking in Early Colonial South Africa

by | Mar 4, 2024 | FUND, FUND V29I2

People for Sale: Tracing the Historical Roots of Slavery and Human Trafficking in Early Colonial South Africa

Author Nina Mollema

ISSN: 2411-7870
Affiliations: D Litt et Phil LLB LLM LLD (Unisa). Associate Professor, Department of Criminal and Procedural Law, University of South Africa
Source: Fundamina, Volume 29 Issue 2, p. 85-111
https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v29/i2a3

Abstract

Some researchers assert that trafficking in persons is a contemporary form of slavery that has existed for at least a century between Africa and Europe in the form of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Other scholars, who only regard human trafficking as trafficking done for the purpose of sexual exploitation, maintain that the origins of modern trafficking dates to the end of the nineteenth century. However, the history of trafficking in South Africa goes back even further. This contribution outlines the history of human enslavement in South Africa from its conceptualisation as slavery through to its evolution as human trafficking. In this investigation, the similarities and differences between slavery and human trafficking are highlighted. By analysing the annals of human trafficking, it is shown that the original form of human exploitation – slavery – has a long-standing tradition in South Africa. It is contended that learning from past human-bondage injustices may contribute positively to a more comprehensive understanding not only of contemporary slavery, but also of the challenges affecting the present success of anti-trafficking efforts.

Book Review: Tulrike Babusiaux, Christian Baldus, Wolfgang Ernst, Franz-Stefan Meissel, Johannes Platschek & Thomas Rüfner (Eds) Handbuch Des Römischen Privatrechts

by | Mar 4, 2024 | FUND, FUND V29I2

Book Review: Tulrike Babusiaux, Christian Baldus, Wolfgang Ernst, Franz-Stefan Meissel, Johannes Platschek & Thomas Rüfner (Eds) Handbuch Des Römischen Privatrechts

Author Philip Thomas

ISSN: 2411-7870
Affiliations: Emeritus Professor, University of Pretoria
Source: Fundamina, Volume 29 Issue 2, p. 112-121
https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v29/i2a4

Abstract

None

Who believes black women? Applying the right to health framework to undo epistemic injustice

by | Mar 4, 2024 | SLR, SLR V34 I2

Who believes black women? Applying the right to health framework to undo epistemic injustice

Author: Tlaleng Mofokeng

ISSN: 1996-2193
Affiliations: United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health
Source: Stellenbosch Law Review, Volume 34 Issue 2, 2023, p. 249 – 260
https://doi.org/10.47348/SLR/2023/i2a1

Abstract

Epistemic injustice has a significant impact on black women’s experiences of healthcare. The failure of medical professionals to consider the experience of black women impairs the realisation of their right to health. Moreover, it embeds the disadvantages that these women face, undermining the realisation of substantive equality. This lecture considers how the medical community’s failure to believe and listen to black women constitutes an example of epistemic injustice. First, it discusses the prevalence of so-called “sex testing” in sports and how it is often used to target black female athletes as an example of epistemic injustice. In particular, it focuses on the impact of sex testing on the career of Caster Semenya. Secondly, it addresses how the forced sterilisation of black women in South Africa is another example of epistemic injustice in healthcare, negatively impacting their rights. Finally, it considers the criminalisation of sex work in South Africa as a third example of epistemic injustice that has substantially affected the rights of mostly black women.