Interpreting Perlocutionary Speech Acts on Aggravation and Mitigation Circumstances: The Case of the former ICTR
Abstract
This article attempts to interpret the interactivity between force of utterance and aggravating and mitigation circumstances during the ICTR sentencing process. This process which is essential in determining whether the judges’ evaluative comments aimed to address aggravation and mitigation circumstances are predictive of the ensuing sentences. The data for this article were accessed from the 1995-2000 Basic Documents and Case Law CD-ROM of the then International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, focusing on the then thirteen (13) completed cases retrievable from http://www.ictr.org. Informed by the Speech Act Theory and using Wordsmith to determine the frequency of linguistic terms at airing aggravation, the study was done on seventy-two thousand words, paying attention to interpreting the language used to address aggravating and mitigating circumstances. Findings show that emotive evaluations are not a major characteristic in sentencing, and where in use, they do not predict the harshness of punishments given.
Keywords:
Aggravation, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Mitigation, Sentencing, Speech Act Theory
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Cases
The Prosecutor vs. Clement Kayishema (ICTR-95-1)
The Prosecutor vs. Georges Rutaganda (ICTR-96-3)
The Prosecutor vs. Jean Paul Akayesu (ICTR-96-4)
The Prosecutor vs. Obed Ruzindana (ICTR-96-10)
The Prosecutor vs. Alfred Musema (ICTR-96-13)
The Prosecutor vs. Georges Ruggiu (ICTR-97-32)
The Prosecutor vs. Jean Kambanda (ICTR-97-23)
The Prosecutor vs. Elizaphan Ntakirutimana (1.ICTR-96-10)
The Prosecutor vs. Gerard Ntakirutimana (ICTR-96-17)
The Prosecutor vs. Omar Serushago (ICTR-98-39)
http://www.ictr.org.
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