One Image, One Thousand Words? Discussing the Outer Limits of Resorting to Visual Digital Evidence in cases involving International Crimes

Abstract

Visual digital evidence plays a cardinal role in international law, particularly when it comes to international criminal law and the documentation of international crimes. This Article argues that resorting to visual digital evidence in cases involving international crimes should take place with cognizance of the prejudicial bias that such pieces of evidence can exert. In that sense, echoing the general impact of digital evidence on international criminal law, as stressed in the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations as well as the Leiden Guidelines on the Use of Digitally Derived Evidence, this Article discusses why international courts as well as quasi-judicial bodies should make limited use of visual digital evidence in two major instances. The first comprises cases where visual digital evidence comes to add nothing to the identification of a specific individual as the culprit of an international crime. The second refers to instances where such evidence offers nothing or little to the question around the gravity of the international crime in question.