NGO-Prosecutorial Complex in Universal Jurisdiction Cases: Structure and Consequences for Justice and Public Knowledge about Human Rights Violations

该项目将增进对非政府组织和检察机构在普遍管辖权下的刑事诉讼中形成的网络的结构和运作的了解。它将进一步展示这些网络如何影响司法、法庭陈述和公众对大规模侵犯人权行为的了解。非政府组织检察网络以两种方式影响审判和对侵权行为的了解。他们通过将证据、证人和私人检察官--其中一些是由难民人口组成--带入审判，从而给指控和法庭程序蒙上了色彩。此外，非政府组织通过审判观察和在网站上发表博客和报告，为传播有背景的法庭叙述作出了贡献。我们将探讨这些因果过程的本质。美国对这些经历非常感兴趣，特别是考虑到最近更新了联邦法律的《战争罪行受害者正义法案》，该法案允许在美国起诉被指控的战争罪犯--无论犯罪者和受害者的地点和国籍如何。在这个项目中，将对研究生进行培训，并将所学知识纳入大学和研究生教学。将通过一篇面向公众的论文、与从业人员的研讨会和研讨会来交流见解。该项目建立在研究刑事审判如何塑造关于大规模暴行犯罪的知识和集体记忆的学术基础上。这方面的研究表明，审判往往影响公众对这类罪行的看法和集体记忆，即使受到刑法的体制逻辑的限制，因为它侧重于个人，对结构背景和长期的刑事责任不感兴趣，限制了证据规则，以及有罪和无罪的二元组。拟议的研究超越了司法机构的范围，以非政府组织的形式在国内和跨越国界审查它们与民间社会的网络联系：一个跨国非政府组织--检察综合体。该项目将加强法律社会学、知识、集体记忆和组织间网络的交叉知识。这项研究包括对参与UJ诉讼的几个国家的检察官、调查人员和非政府组织代表进行深入采访。访谈探讨了组织目标、组织间交流网络的结构以及交流的内容。对法庭文件的分析将追踪非政府组织的议程、投入和网络是如何反映在审判叙述中的。分析非政府组织的博客和报告将确定额外的网络联系，并审查向公众传播法庭叙述的情况。该项目将为知识社会学增加对网络结构与法律真理和日常知识的产生之间的联系的洞察力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project will advance knowledge on the structure and functioning of networks formed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and prosecutorial agencies in criminal proceedings under universal jurisdiction (UJ). It will further show how these networks affect justice, court narratives, and public knowledge about massive violations of human rights. NGO-prosecutorial networks affect trials and knowledge about violations in two ways. They color charges and court proceedings by channeling evidence, witnesses, and private prosecutors—some constituted out of refugee populations—into trials. In addition, NGOs contribute to the spread of contextualized court narratives through trial observation and the publication of blogs and reports on websites. The nature of these causal processes will be explored. American interest in these experiences is substantial, especially considering the “Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act” that recently updated federal law to enable prosecution of alleged war criminals in the United States—regardless of the place of perpetration and the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim. During this project, graduate students will be trained, and knowledge gained will be incorporated into college and graduate instruction. Insights will be communicated through a public-facing paper, workshops with practitioners, and a symposium.The project builds on scholarship that examines how criminal trials shape knowledge about and collective memory of mass atrocity crimes. This body of research shows that trials often affect public perceptions and collective memories of such crimes, even while constrained by the institutional logic of criminal law with its focus on individuals, disinterest in structural contexts and the longue durée, limiting evidentiary rules, and guilty-not guilty binaries. The proposed research looks beyond the confines of judicial institutions to examine their network ties with civil society in the form of NGOs, domestically and across national boundaries: a transnational NGO-prosecutorial complex. The project will enhance knowledge at the intersection of the sociology of law, knowledge, collective memory, and inter-organizational networks. The research includes in-depth interviews with prosecutors, investigators, and NGO representatives, in several countries engaging in UJ proceedings. Interviews explore organizational goals, the structure of exchange networks between organizations and the content of exchanges. An analysis of court documents will trace how NGO agendas, input, and networks are reflected in trial narratives. Analyzing NGO blogs and reports will identify additional network ties and examine the transmission of court narratives to the public. The project will add to sociology of knowledge insights into the link between network structures and the production of legal truths and everyday knowledgeThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.