Journal of International Criminal Justice

Journal of International Criminal Justice
Title	Journal of International Criminal Justice
Discipline	International law; Criminal law; Human rights
Abbreviation	JICJ
Publisher	Oxford University Press
History	2003–present
Frequency	Bimonthly
Issn	1478-1387

Contents

Journal of International Criminal Justice is a peer-reviewed legal journal focusing on issues arising at the intersection of International Criminal Court, International humanitarian law, and International human rights law. It publishes scholarship on prosecution, adjudication, and accountability relating to crimes such as genocide, war crime, crime against humanity, and transnational crimes adjudicated by tribunals including the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and hybrid courts such as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. The journal serves practitioners, scholars, and policy-makers engaged with institutions such as the United Nations, International Committee of the Red Cross, European Court of Human Rights, and regional mechanisms including the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

History

The journal was launched in 2003 amid renewed institutional developments following the establishment of the International Criminal Court and the winding down of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Early editorial initiatives engaged with prosecutions at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the trial of Slobodan Milošević at The Hague, and landmark jurisprudence from the International Court of Justice. Over time the journal tracked the emergence of hybrid tribunals such as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, debates over universal jurisdiction involving cases in Spain and Belgium, and prosecutorial developments connected to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in Colombia.

Articles cover substantive issues including jurisdictional doctrines stemming from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, modes of liability examined in prosecutions of leaders like Charles Taylor, and evidentiary questions evident in trials at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Comparative pieces address transitional justice mechanisms across contexts such as South Africa's post-apartheid process, truth commissions exemplified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa), and reparations frameworks following mass atrocity in Rwanda. The journal also publishes analysis of procedural reforms within tribunals like the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and debates over complementarity involving states including Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan. Case notes and book reviews engage with works on topics ranging from internationalized prosecutions against individuals like Hissène Habré to treaty developments such as the Genocide Convention and instruments negotiated at UN General Assembly sessions.

The journal is overseen by an editorial board drawing scholars and practitioners affiliated with institutions such as the European University Institute, Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. Guest editors have included former tribunal prosecutors, defense counsel with experience at The Hague, and judges from bodies like the International Criminal Court. Submissions undergo double-blind peer review involving external referees from academia and bench or bar experts who have served at institutions such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and national supreme courts including the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The editorial process adheres to ethical standards promoted by organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Published by Oxford University Press on a bimonthly schedule, the journal appears in both print and digital formats distributed to libraries at institutions such as the Library of Congress, the British Library, and university collections at Columbia University and University of Oxford. Special issues have been timed to coincide with conferences held by organizations including the International Association of Penal Law and the American Society of International Law, and symposia have featured contributors from the Office of the Prosecutor (International Criminal Court), national ministries of justice, and non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

The journal is indexed in major legal and social science databases including Social Sciences Citation Index, Scopus, and Westlaw. It is listed in bibliographic services such as Current Contents, EBSCOhost, and LexisNexis, and is discoverable through library catalogs like WorldCat and citation platforms including Google Scholar and Web of Science.

Scholarly reception highlights the journal's role in shaping discourse on landmark cases such as the prosecutions of Radovan Karadžić and Bosnian Genocide litigation before the International Court of Justice, and in debates over prosecutorial strategy exemplified by the Gbagbo trial and proceedings related to Bashar al-Assad. Practitioners cite articles in policy submissions to bodies like the United Nations Security Council and in amicus briefs filed at the European Court of Human Rights. The journal's citation metrics appear in impact assessments alongside journals such as Law and Contemporary Problems and International and Comparative Law Quarterly, and its influence extends to curricula at law schools including University of Cambridge and New York University School of Law.

Category:International law journals Category:Criminal law journals