This collection of essays assesses the legacy established by the most important international criminal tribunal since the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials, and considers what might be done to enhance or modify the legacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), including improvement of the capacity of state courts in the region to prosecute violations of humanitarian law by using the Tribunal’s documents, evidence, law, and practice.
In the post-Nuremberg era two of the most important developments in international criminal law are the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Created through UN Security Council resolutions, with specific mandates to prosecute those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law, the ICTY and the ICTR played crucial roles in the development of international criminal law. Through a series of chapters written by leading authorities in the field, The Legacy of Ad Hoc Tribunals in International Criminal Law addresses the history of the ICTY and the ICTR, and the important aspects of the tribunals' accomplishments. From examining the groundwork laid by the ICTY and the ICTR for greater international attention to crimes against humanity to the establishment of the International Criminal Courts, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of the impact and lasting roles of these tribunals.
An internationally-renowned scholar in the fields of international and transitional justice, Diane Orentlicher provides an unparalleled account of an international tribunal's impact in societies that have the greatest stake in its work. In Some Kind of Justice: The ICTY's Impact in Bosnia and Serbia, Orentlicher explores the evolving domestic impact of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which operated longer than any other international war crimes court. Drawing on hundreds of research interviews and a rich body of inter-disciplinary scholarship, Orentlicher provides a path-breaking account of how the Tribunal influenced domestic political developments, victims' experience of justice, acknowledgement of wartime atrocities, and domestic war crimes prosecutions, as well as the dynamic factors behind its evolving influence in each of these spheres. Highlighting the perspectives of Bosnians and Serbians, Some Kind of Justice offers important and practical lessons about how international criminal courts can improve the delivery of justice.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) is the third modern international criminal tribunal supported by the United Nations and the first to be situated where the crimes were committed. This timely, important and comprehensive book is the first to critically assess the impact and legacy of the SCSL for Africa and international criminal law. Contributors include leading scholars and respected practitioners with inside knowledge of the tribunal, who analyze cutting-edge and controversial issues with significant implications for international criminal law and transitional justice. These include joint criminal enterprise; forced marriage; enlisting and using child soldiers; attacks against United Nations peacekeepers; the tension between truth commissions and criminal trials in the first country to simultaneously have the two; and the questions of whether it is permissible under international law for states to unilaterally confer blanket amnesties to local perpetrators of universally condemned international crimes.
In this new collection of essays the editors assess the legacy of the Nuremberg Trial asking whether the Trial really did have a civilising influence or if it constituted little more than institutionalised vengeance. Three essays focus particularly on the historical context and involve rich analysis of, for example, the atmospherics of the Trial itself and the attitudes of German society at the time to the conduct of the Trial. The majority of the essays deal with the contemporary legacies of the Nuremberg Trial and attempt to assess the ongoing relevance of the Judgment itself and of the principles encapsulated in it. Some essays consider the importance of the principle of individual criminal responsibility under international law and argue that the international community has to some extent failed to fulfil the promise of Nuremberg in the decades since the Trial. Other essays focus on contemporary application of aspects of the substantive law of Nuremberg - particularly the international crime of aggression, the law of military occupation and the use of the crime of conspiracy as an alternative basis of criminal responsibility. The collection also includes essays analysing the nature and operation of a number of international criminal tribunals since Nuremberg including the permanent International Criminal Court. The final grouping of essays focus on the impact of the Nuremberg Trial on Australia examining, in particular, Australia's post-World War Two war crimes trials of Japanese defendants, Australia's extensive national case law on Article 1(F) of the Refugee Convention and Australia's national implementing legislation for the Rome Statute.
This book is the first comprehensive study on the work and functioning of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The ECCC were established in 2006 to bring to trial senior leaders and those most responsible for serious crimes committed under the notorious Khmer Rouge regime. Established by domestic law following an agreement in 2003 between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the UN, the ECCC’s hybrid features provide a unique approach of accountability for mass atrocities. The book entails an analysis of the work and jurisprudence of the ECCC, providing a detailed assessment of their legacies and contribution to international criminal law. The collection, containing 20 chapters from leading scholars and practitioners with inside knowledge of the ECCC, discuss the most pressing topics and its implications for international criminal law. These include the establishment of the ECCC, subject matter crimes, joint criminal enterprise and procedural aspects, including questions regarding the trying of frail accused persons and the admission of torture statements into evidence. Simon M. Meisenberg is an Attorney-at-Law in Germany, formerly he was a Legal Advisor to the ECCC and a Senior Legal Officer at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Ignaz Stegmiller is Coordinator for the International Programs of the Faculty of Law at the Franz von Liszt Institute for International and Comparative Law, Giessen, Germany.
Explores how the first treaty-based UN international tribunal's judges innovatively applied the law to perpetrators of international crimes in one of the worst conflicts in recent history.
This volume presents an overview of the principal features of the legacy of International Tribunals and an assessment of their impact on the International Criminal Court and on the review of the Rome Statute. It illustrates the foundation of a system of international criminal law and justice by using case studies to provide advice for possible future developments in international criminal procedure and law.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established in 1993 and is due to complete its trials by 2011. Easily the most credible and prodigious of the international tribunals established in this period, the ICTY is by far the most important source of case law on international criminal law. This is reflected in the citations it receives by other courts and by learned commentators. Long after its dissolution, the ICTY will most likely serve as an important frame of reference for the International Criminal Court and other courts dealing with international crimes, including national courts. The publication of this book coincides with the year of cessation of trial activity at the ICTY. Its purpose is to mark this significant milestone in international law with a series of in-depth, critical reflections on the institution's legacy by eminent scholars and practitioners. In the course of seventeen chapters, the contributing authors analyse the main features of the ICTY's work in an unprecedented examination of the institution's legitimacy, core principles, methodologies, unstated assumptions, political circumstances, and impact-and indeed, its legacy.
