Jurisdiction: Nature, Scope, Dimensions, and Complexities

It is worth reiterating that the focus of this study is twofold. The first is to articulate the extent, if any, to which the West African State of Sierra Leone is fulfilling its international obligations to either extradite or prosecute persons suspected of committing crimes in violation of international criminal law by enacting the relevant laws in its municipal law system, thereby recognizing crimes of an international nature and providing for the exercise of universal jurisdiction for the investigation, trial, and conviction of perpetrators of such crimes. The second is to determine the extent to which any non-compliance with such obligations may render Sierra Leone amenable to becoming a safe haven for fugitives from international criminal justice, thereby rendering the country complicit in failure to combat impunity through the exercise of universal jurisdiction. This chapter examines in detail the concept of jurisdiction in all its conceptual dimensions, as well as the universality principle, particularly in the domain of international criminal justice. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.