Universal Jurisdiction: The Sierra Leone Profile
Series: International Criminal Justice Series

This book is about the combating of impunity from international criminality, with a special focus on the role of Sierra Leone as a pioneer in the progressive application of international criminal law in the African region.

Despite Sierra Leone’s role, the country’s profile, both in terms of the incorporation and application of the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, is deficient in several major respects, falling far short of its dual international obligation not to provide safe havens from justice for perpetrators of international crimes and to combat impunity from such crimogenic acts.

Based on his vast experience in this field, the author provides the reader with a seminal scholarly work articulating the existing state of the law in Sierra Leone and highlighting the deficiencies in the law and factors inhibiting the exercise of universal jurisdiction in this UN member state. He also proposes substantive and procedural law reforms in the state’s relevant law on the subject.

The book is recommended reading for practitioners and scholars in international criminal law and related disciplines. Its accessibility is highly enhanced by relevant footnotes, tables and summaries of each chapter.

Justice Bankole Thompson holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Cambridge. He is Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University, USA. He was a Judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Currently, Justice Thompson is a Judge of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone, and a fellow of the Sierra Leone Institute of International Law.

Specific to this book:

• Written by a former Presiding Judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
• Provides an insight into the existing state of law in Sierra Leone
• Pinpoints the deficiencies in the law and factors inhibiting the exercise of universal jurisdiction in this UN member state

Foreword by Sylvester Ekundayo Rowe, Former Ambassador of Sierra Leone to the United Nations; Former Visiting Professor, Long Island University, New York; and one of the negotiators/drafters of the 1999 Lome Peace Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the RUF rebels

This is Volume 3 in the International Criminal Justice Series