“Grotian moment” – as envisaged by the father of international law, Hugo Grotius (1583-1645),
the term signifies a legal development that is so significant that it can create new customary
international law or radically transform the interpretation of treaty-based law. Modern
international war crimes trials have the potential to give rise to such Grotian moments
related to international humanitarian law, human rights law, and international criminal
procedure. This award-winning Website features key documents, breaking news, and expert
debate and commentary on issues and developments related to the major international war
crimes trials of our time, including the trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders before the
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the trial of Charles Taylor before the
Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the trials of the Ba’ath Party Leaders before the Iraqi
High Tribunal.
A Preview of the Karadzic Case
In the first major development of the Radovan Karadzic case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Defense team (led by Attorney Peter Robinson) has filed a Pre-Trial Brief (under Karadzic's name). The brief, which can be read here, details the defenses Karadzic will rely on at trial and provides a comprehensive preview of the defense case. A recent one-hour radio discussion with Peter Robinson, Prof. Michael Scharf (Case), and Prof. Mike Newton (Vanderbilt) about the defense of Radovan Karadzic can be heard here.
Posted @ 10:35 AM | Experts Debate the Issues: The Radovan Karadzic Trial | 4 Comments | 0 Trackbacks
The end of impunity?
The end of impunity?
By Mark V. Vlasic
Justice caught up with Radovan Karadzic Thursday, when he was formally charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Thirteen years after the Srebrenica genocide, when Bosnian Serb forces rounded up more than 7,500 Muslim men and boys and slaughtered them in cold blood, thousands with their eyes blindfolded and their hands tied behind their backs, the former president of Serb-controlled Bosnia will find himself in the very same dock that held former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Former President Karadzic is accused of presiding over the worst massacre in Europe since the Holocaust. And as he sits between two U.N. prison guards in an international tribunal, one must wonder, is the end of impunity finally coming to a close?
In 2002, I sat across from Slobodan Milosevic in the first war crimes trial of a head of state. It was a historic trial - one supported by the United Nations and the international community - and one that only a few years earlier, I thought never would happen. You see, up until April 2001, when the Butcher of the Balkans was arrested at his Belgrade villa, it was almost presumed that if you were a terrible dictator, or a head of state bent on mass slaughter and destruction, then you would never see the inside of a courtroom.
Lesser functionaries, yes - they might go to trial - but the top officials were virtually untouchable. As presidents, they probably would die in office, or escape to a well-appointed villa to live out their lives in comfortable exile. But now, in the short time I've been a lawyer, the very presumptions that have guided human history have changed ... and we've almost taken this for granted.
After the arrest and trial of Milosevic came the arrest and trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein - the first war crimes trial of a Middle East leader in history - and then the arrest of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who now also sits in the dock in The Hague. It seems that with every year, the dominoes of impunity keep falling, first Europe, then the Middle East, then Africa. And they continue to fall: Chad's exiled former president, Hissène Habré, is to stand trial at a special court in Senegal, while in Asia, another domino is falling.
Khieu Samphan, the former president of the Khmer Rouge, is facing a U.N.-sponsored court in Cambodia for his part in "the killing fields" - the slaughter of his own people - nearly 30 years ago.
Most recently, the International Criminal Court in The Hague has dropped another domino with its indictment of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for genocide. The question now is not if another president will ever be charged, but rather when. And who is next?
This is a fundamental change in the presumption that dictators will go unpunished. Unlike those of us who studied law and justice in the 20th century, the next generation of international prosecutors and foreign policy professionals - those graduating from universities and law schools in the 21st century - will only know a world where such terrible dictators do stand trial.
Such a presumption may empower the next generation of leaders to act - and perhaps with time - to bring an end to impunity. Sixty years after the world's experiment with international justice at Nuremberg - and after millions of lives shattered by war crimes, destruction and perverted leadership, we should be cautiously optimistic that there is some hope for humanity. But that hope is only sustained if we keep pressing the cause of justice. Let us challenge ourselves to press on, and let us hope that future dictators take notice.
Mark V. Vlasic, a senior fellow at Georgetown's Institute for International Law and Politics, served on the Srebrenica prosecution trial team at the U.N. war crimes tribunal. He helped to train the judges who tried Saddam Hussein, and worked with the President's Special Envoy to Sudan while serving as a White House fellow in 2006-07. The views expressed here are his own. This essay appeared on page B - 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle, August 1, 2008.
Posted @ 8:19 PM | Experts Debate the Issues: The Radovan Karadzic Trial | 485 Comments | 0 Trackbacks
