Forced Marriage : Terminological Coherence and Dissonance in International Criminal Law

Under international criminal law, there is no single conceptualization of forced marriage—a reality that creates legal and factual challenges for both prosecutors using “forced marriage” as a charging label for crimes as well as victims who might feel that another crime category, as opposed to forced marriage, better reflects their circumstances. Given this dilemma, this article examines how two international criminal tribunals, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, defined and interpreted forced marriage, when both convicted individuals for this crime in Sierra Leone and Cambodia, respectively. By analyzing the tribunals' differing approaches to forced marriage, the article highlights the fluidity in the definition and categorization of "forced marriage" as a charging label and ultimately concludes that the kind of terminology that should be used when it comes to forced marriage is still a live debate in international criminal law.