The supranational system is still under construction and will be so for at least some decades before it can be called a consistent system with an intrinsic logic. Sentencing and sanctioning is one of the issues in which this becomes clear. The ICC-complementarity principle, the principle of legality, the execution of sanctions, and the relation of the supranational system to domestic systems such as the Rwandan gacaca, are all topics to be thoroughly discussed. The uplifting of a penal system from a relatively small community - an individual state - with relative agreement on basic aspects of punishing, to the mondial, per definition heterogeneous, level, where no such agreement exists, reveals many controversies. Opinions on all aspects of sanctioning differ widely all over the world. What is the proper sanction for a crime against humanity or an act of genocide? And whom to punish? Controversy exists regarding States, children (child soldiers) and mentally incapable offenders as punishable subjects. Questionable also are the goals of the supranational criminal justice system, and whether these goals are achieved. Too often these supranational goals seem to be supra-natural as well. Goals steer the system in choosing the number of accused to be prosecuted and judged and the quality of its proceedings, but also questions such as whether a detainee has the right to be visited by a prostitute. These are some of the questions that are highlighted in this fourth Volume of the Supranational Criminal Law series

The 1991 Criminal Justice Act, requires that sentences be 'proportionate' to the severity of the crime. This book discusses how sentences may be scaled proportionately to the gravity of the crime. Topics dealt with include how the idea of a penal censure justifies proportionate sentences and how political pressures impinge on sentencing policies.

The argument of this book begins with the proposition that there are certain things we must understand about the criminal sanction before we can begin to talk sensibly about its limits. First, we need to ask some questions about the rationale of the criminal sanction. What are we trying to do by defining conduct as criminal and punishing people who commit crimes? To what extent are we justified in thinking that we can or ought to do what we are trying to do? Is it possible to construct an acceptable rationale for the criminal sanction enabling us to deal with the argument that it is itself an unethical use of social power? And if it is possible, what implications does that rationale have for the kind of conceptual creature that the criminal law is? Questions of this order make up Part I of the book, which is essentially an extended essay on the nature and justification of the criminal sanction. We also need to understand, so the argument continues, the characteristic processes through which the criminal sanction operates. What do the rules of the game tell us about what the state may and may not do to apprehend, charge, convict, and dispose of persons suspected of committing crimes? Here, too, there is great controversy between two groups who have quite different views, or models, of what the criminal process is all about. There are people who see the criminal process as essentially devoted to values of efficiency in the suppression of crime. There are others who see those values as subordinate to the protection of the individual in his confrontation with the state. A severe struggle over these conflicting values has been going on in the courts of this country for the last decade or more. How that struggle is to be resolved is a second major consideration that we need to take into account before tackling the question of the limits of the criminal sanction. These problems of process are examined in Part II. Part III deals directly with the central problem of defining criteria for limiting the reach of the criminal sanction. Given the constraints of rationale and process examined in Parts I and II, it argues that we have over-relied on the criminal sanction and that we had better start thinking in a systematic way about how to adjust our commitments to our capacities, both moral and operational.

This collection of original essays surveys the evolution of sentencing policies and practices in Western countries over the past twenty-five years. Contributors address plea-bargaining, community service, electronic monitoring, standards of use of incarceration, and legal perspectives on sentencing policy developments, among other topics. Sentencing and Sanctions in Western Countries provides a range of scholars and students excellent cross-national knowledge of sentencing laws and practices, when and why they have changed over time, and with what effects.

This collection of original essays surveys the evolution of sentencing policies and practices in Western countries over the past twenty-five years. Contributors address plea-bargaining, community service, electronic monitoring, standards of use of incarceration, and legal perspectives on sentencing policy developments, among other topics. Sentencing and Sanctions in Western Countries provides a range of scholars and students excellent cross-national knowledge of sentencing laws and practices, when and why they have changed over time, and with what effects.

"Colloquium ... was held at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen on 20-21 February 2004"--P. v.

What exactly is the context in which all aspects of this new field of criminal law have to be interpreted? What does the principle of legality mean in the context of supranational criminal law? Which tradition lies at the basis of this new law system? Is supranational criminal law as it grows the result of a deliberate policy, tending towards a coherent system? Or is it merely the result of crisis management?