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Abstract:
Advocates of the desirability and efficacy of the United States military commissions as the preferred means to try detainees held in the global war on terror ought to have been disappointed by the inauguration of the trial process with David Hicks. Far from confirming the seniority (and concomitant dangerous character) of Guantánamo Bay detainees, Hicks entered a guilty plea to the single count of providing material support to a terrorist organization and negotiated an extremely lenient sentence of seven years with all but nine months suspended. Although the entering of a guilty plea proved convenient for both the Bush Administration and the Howard Government on multiple levels, David Hicks also exposed the thorough politicization of the military commissions - the first of three fundamental injustices inherent in the system. Intriguingly, the military commission continued against David Hicks as if no pre-trial agreement existed in an absurd pretense of proper judicial process. The two additional fundamental injustices involve flaws in the rules of evidence and procedure and the illegal creation of offenses not known in the law of war. The think piece concludes with a discussion of implications from this case for future military commissions.

Hicks, Guantanamo Bay, military commission, charade

Abstract:
Despite thirty years since entry into force of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) the majority of States Parties still have not implemented effective national measures to ensure compliance with Convention obligations. The combined lack of a multilateral organisation with responsibility to monitor Convention compliance and the growing threat of bio-terrorism highlight the imperative for more effective and widespread national implementation measures. This article briefly outlines Convention obligations and suggests alternative approaches to States Parties to ensure compliance. The article does not propose a model implementing legislation package because of the authors' shared view that one model simply cannot suit all States Parties. Individual states will need to consider existing legislative regimes - particularly those dealing with biological materials and activities - to determine the extent to which existing regulatory regimes might be adapted or amended to effectively cover BWC obligations. The authors discuss the explicit Convention obligation for the enactment of penal legislation but also discuss the practical issues to ensure compliance with Convention obligations such as the prohibition on transfers of biological agents and toxins of types and in quantities that have no justification for peaceful purposes and the requirement to gather, collate and share confidence building information with other States Parties. The article concludes with an overview of Australia's national implementation of BWC obligations to illustrate one particular State Party's approach to its treaty obligations.

Abstract:
One noticeable coincidence in 2006 involved the deaths of three former heads of state: Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet and Slobodan Milošević. Many past calendar years have marked the passing of multiple former heads of state but these three particular former leaders had all been subjected to judicial processes of one sort or another in respect of alleged widespread and systematic violations of human rights, arbitrary killings and - for two of them - genocide of their own or other peoples. In all three cases the deaths were linked in some way to the legal proceedings and evoked widespread dissatisfaction - Pinochet because he escaped trial, Hussein because the proceedings against him were fundamentally flawed and Milošević because he died before the four-year trial proceedings against him could be brought to a conclusion. Despite the obvious differences in judicial proceedings against all three accused, an emergent and common refrain has been to query whether any satisfactory trial of a former head of state is indeed possible.

International criminal trials, judicial framework, criminal tribunals