no justice like [yawn] justice

08.08.07

today was busy. loads happened.

pre-school:

1. i almost missed my bus this morning. i am supposed to hit the stop button when i see the spire of the church (that's where i leave my beloved no. 18 bus & transfer to the no. 13, which drops me off right at the peace palace). i saw the spire of the church but maybe 30 seconds later than usual. so the bus driver pulls over to the side (ahead of the stop). he's grouchy already & my actions sure didn't help. so he says something to me in dutch (my guess: "get off my bus you freakin' non-dutch ignoramus & i hate you like i've never hated another passenger before in my life"). i say "i'm sorry" in the cutest way possible & then flashed him my awesomest smile. he did not smile back.

during-school:

2. the french lecture today was really tough. my translator machine was broken, so i just took it off and tried to go without it as an additional challenge to my brain cells. i swear that one sentence sounded like -- "it will not rain on the supreme power but it will win many trees." i'm serious. i can't figure it out when the words are all blurring into one another. i'm barely able to figure it out when people speak painfully slowly. anyway. you heard it here first.

3. & there was one time when the professor said "parce que" so forcefully that i thought he might drown the front row with spit.

4. selling hague academy thongs probably not a good idea.

5. met 3 new people, D from italy, P from poland & H from austria.

post-school:

5. at lunch-time, i decided to be scholarly and go do some printing of cases at the library. the peace palace library is an amazing repository - pretty much anything international law you want to read will be there. super cool.

6. while chatting with D in the library (we were trying to figure out how to print stuff out), i found out that there was a visit to the ICTY organized by one of the italian students. he invited me along. i was going to actually do some reading, but that seemed like a lame idea when i can read anywhere. so i tagged along.

7. i had a great time at the ICTY. we had been given access to the public gallery for a hearing -- the milutinovic hearing. once our group cleared security (there were about 30 of us), we entered into the public gallery. it was quite interesting -- the layout was a bit confusing, but i think:

panel of judges at center back of room
in front of judges a group of clerks (i think)
witness in front of them, facing panel (obvs)
to the left, defence counsel (2, one standing & pleading, other one sitting)
to defence counsel's left is the prosecutor
behind them were a group of other attorneys (not sure how they were connected -- maybe more clerks?) at the extreme left seating was a row of older gentlemen, and it was unclear to me who they were. they weren't wearing robes, so non-attorneys, i guess. people with some observer-status? not sure.

anyway, the hearing wasn't exactly riveting. the witness was an expert (but i wasn't able to figure out on what -- i think he was an expert on yugoslavian law.) anyway, he seemed pretty indignant at times, especially for an expert witness. the judges asked many questions of him directly & also through his counsel. more of a civil law/common law melding. so some aspects of the hearing were really interesting. for instance, definition of legislative provisions of the yugoslavian law of the army was key (at least at the portion of the hearing we saw). another issue was semantics -- the witness was using the word conclusion & the judges were prying into what he meant by a "conclusion" (a decision? a resolution?) anyway. read on for the hearing highlights.

highlights:

> of a group of 30 of us from the course, i saw 4 people dead asleep (all at the same time!)
> co-counsel (not the one pleading, the other one) was checking his gmail during the hearing. his computer screen faced the gallery and i could see him checking & replying to email.
> another lawyer sitting behind the defence counsel & the prosecutor was checking his blackberry or his cell phone repeatedly.
> BEST -- the chief judge is asking the witness about a legislative provision - judge says that presumably because subsection 2 was a separate section, set apart from the subsection 1, it must have been intended for it to have a particular meaning in the context of the legislative scheme. witness says he is not sure that the provision as the exhibit is the correct version / official version / final version. chief judge asks defence counsel to look into the issue & confirm. defence counsel starts fumbling around in his document binder (i can see it directly & it is sort of a mess). the translator usually cuts out right after there is a break in the proceedings, but sometimes there is a time lag. this time there was a lag. we could hear clearly defence counsel say to his seated co-counsel something like: "... this is all f*cked up..." public gallery starts laughing its ass off. security guard (who does not wear translation device) asked me what happened. so i told him. & he grinned from ear to ear.

non-law related thing:

i finally had bitterballen. sounds dirty, right? holy gutterminds! but really, bitterballen are a savoury dutch meat-based appetizer/snack. it's a deep-friend ball, typically containing a mixture of minced or chopped beef, broth, flour, parsley, salt, pepper. once firm, the filling is rolled into balls and battered and deep-fried. they're usually served with mustard. moutarde. anyway. i had them for the first time (after being told by a dutch guy in the program, that they are a dutch dining must do). they have a very strange consistency -- like mashed potatoes but really really really really more liquidified. sounds delicious, right? don't all email at once for me to bring some back.

xo