International Law’s “Innocence Gap”--Panel 1 on intl. conf. Toward A Human Right to Claim Innocence
Channel: U.S. - Asia Law Institute NYU
Date: 07/11/2022

Over the last decade, a growing number of countries have adopted new laws and other mechanisms to address a gap in national criminal legal systems: the absence of meaningful procedures to raise post-conviction claims of factual innocence. These legal and policy reforms have responded to a global surge of exonerations facilitated by the growth of national innocence organizations that increasingly collaborate across borders. These developments have occurred with little direct help from international law. Although many treaties recognize extensive fair trial and appeal rights, no international human rights instrument—in its text, existing interpretation, or implementation—explicitly and fully recognizes the right to assert a claim of factual innocence. This omission is international law’s innocence gap. This panel will present its analysis of the gap and discuss ways to address it. 

Moderator: Luca Lupária (Full professor of criminal procedure at the University of Milan, director of the Italy Innocence Project and president of the European Innocence Network)
Panelists:
Brandon L. Garrett: L. Neil Williams Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law, Director of Wilson Center for Science and Justice
Laurence R. Helfer: Harry R. Chadwick, Sr. Professor of Law and co-director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at Duke University
Jayne Huckerby: clinical professor of law and the inaugural director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Duke University School of Law