There appears to be confusion as to the legal principles relevant to allegations that a trial judge was not always fully conscious of the trial proceedings. A number of such allegations have been made in the cases before International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In this way, the Court offered some guidance how to address such situations. For example, ICTY addressed in Celebici Appeals Judgement the issue whether the sleeping judge can affect the fairness of proceedings. It noted that: 596. No precedent in the international context was cited in relation to the specific issue raised by this ground…
