An article written by Pace Law Professor Alexander “Sasha” Greenawalt was cited by the Special Court for Sierra Leone when it upheld the conviction and 50-year sentence of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Taylor had been convicted of crimes against humanity that were committed in Sierra Leone during that West African country”™s civil war in the 1990s.
The court cited Greenawalt”™s article, “Rethinking Genocidal Intent: The Case for a Knowledge-Based Interpretation,” a piece he wrote in 1999 for the Columbia Law Review. His article addresses cross-border assistance provided by one government to groups waging violence in another state.
Taylor, leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, was accused of helping form the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone. More than 50,000 people in Sierra Leone have been killed since 1991, according to Human Rights Watch.
Taylor was the first head of state to be convicted by an international tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials in Germany following World War II. The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established by agreement between the United Nations and Sierra Leone.
