Ensuring Defense Counsel Competence at International Criminal….pdfVIP

University of Michigan Law School University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository Articles Faculty Scholarship 2009 Ensuring Defense Counsel Competence at International Criminal Tribunals Sonja B. Starr University of M ichig an Law School, sbstarr@ Follow this and additional works at : /articles Part of the Criminal Procedure Commons, International Law Commons, and the Organizations Commons Recommended Citation Starr, Sonja B. Ensuring Defense Counsel Competence at International Criminal ribunals. UCLA J. Intl L. Foreign Aff. 14, no. 1 (2009): 169-206. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact mlaw.repository@. ENSURING DEFENSE COUNSEL COMPETENCE AT INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS Sonja B. Starr* This article addresses theproblem of incompetent representationby defense counsel in internationalcriminaltribunals.According to the author,the ineffectiveness of aparticularattorney may be attributa- ble to a number offactors, including a lack ofexperience with inter- national criminal law, unfamiliaritywith the procedures of interna- tional criminal tribunals, and the simplefailure to befluent in the languages used by the court. Starr explains that theproblem of in- competence persists because of obstacles to the recruitment, reten- tion, and appointment ofproficient defense lawyers, as well as the lack of administrativeorjudicial oversight concerning competence. The authorpoints out the shortcomi