When genocidal violence gripped Rwanda in 1994, the international community recoiled, hastily withdrawing its peacekeepers. Late that year, in an effort to redeem itself, the United Nations Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to seek accountability for some of the worst atrocities since World War II: the genocide suffered by the Tutsi and crimes against humanity suffered by the Hutu. But faced with competing claims, the prosecution focused exclusively on the crimes of Hutu extremists. No charges would be brought against the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front, which ultimately won control of the country. The UN, as if racked by guilt for its past inaction, gave in to pressure by Rwanda’s new leadership. With the Hutu effectively silenced, and the RPF constantly reminding the international community of its failure to protect the Tutsi during the war, the Tribunal pursued an unusual form of one-sided justice, born out of contrition. Fascinated by the Tribunal’s rich complexities, journalist Thierry Cruvellier came back day after day to watch the proceedings, spending more time there than any other outside observer. Gradually he gained the confidence of the victims, defendants, lawyers, and judges. Drawing on interviews with these protagonists and his close observations of their interactions, Cruvellier takes readers inside the courtroom to witness the motivations, mechanisms, and manipulations of justice as it unfolded on the stage of high-stakes, global politics. It is this ground-level view that makes his account so valuable—and so absorbing. A must-read for those who want to understand the dynamics of international criminal tribunals, Court of Remorse reveals both the possibilities and the challenges of prosecuting human rights violations. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association for School Libraries and the Public Library Association Best Books for High Schools, selected by the American Association for School Libraries

The Elgar Companion to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is a one-stop reference resource on this complex tribunal, established in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which closed its doors on 31 December 2015. This Companion provides an insightful account of the workings and legacy of the ICTR in the field of international criminal justice.

This book is a guide to the law that applies in the three international criminal tribunals, for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, set up by the UN during the period 1993 to 2002 to deal with atrocities and human rights abuses committed during conflict in those countries. Building on the work of an earlier generation of war crimes courts, these tribunals have developed a sophisticated body of law concerning the elements of the three international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes), and forms of participation in such crimes, as well as other general principles of international criminal law, procedural matters and sentencing. The legacy of the tribunals will be indispensable as international law moves into a more advanced stage, with the establishment of the International Criminal Court. Their judicial decisions are examined here, as well as the drafting history of their statutes and other contemporary sources.

This is the first comprehensive ethnographic account of an international criminal court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

This comprehensive Companion examines the achievements and challenges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world’s first permanent international criminal tribunal. It provides an overview of the first two decades of the ICC’s existence, investigating the dominant narratives and counter-narratives that have emerged about the institution and its work.

Beginning about a century ago, but with a dramatic acceleration of the process in the final decades of the 1900s, international courts and tribunals have taken a prominent place in the enforcement of international law, the maintenance of international peace and security and the protection and promotion of human rights. This book addresses the great diversity of these institutions, their structures and legal frameworks and their contribution to the international rule of law.

The aim of this new collection of essays is to engage in analysis beyond the familiar victor’s justice critiques. The editors have drawn on authors from across the world — including Australia, Japan, China, France, Korea, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — with expertise in the fields of international humanitarian law, international criminal law, Japanese studies, modern Japanese history, and the use of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The diverse backgrounds of the individual authors allow the editors to present essays which provide detailed and original analyses of the Tokyo Trial from legal, philosophical and historical perspectives. Several of the essays in the collection are based on the authors’ extensive archival research in Japan, Australia, the United States and New Zealand, providing rich insights into Japanese societal attitudes towards the Trial, biological experimentation by the Japanese Army in China, as well as the trial of Korean prison guards and prosecutions for rape and sexual assault in the post-war period. Some of the essays deal with particular participants in the Trial, examining the role of individual judges, and the selection of defendants and the decision not to prosecute the Emperor. Other essays analyse the Trial from a legal perspective, and address its impact on concepts such as command responsibility, conspiracy and war crimes. The majority of the essays seek to identify and address some of the ‘forgotten crimes’ in the Tokyo Trial. These include crimes committed in China and Korea (particularly the activities of the infamous Unit 731), crimes committed against comfort women, and crimes associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the conventional firebombing of other Japanese cities and the illicit drug trade in China. Finally, the collection includes a number of essays which consider the importance of studying the Tokyo Trial and its contemporary relevance. These issues include an examination of the way in which academics have ‘written’ the Trial over the last 60 years, and an analysis of some of the lessons that can be drawn for international trials in the future.

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.

ÔInternational criminal justice indeed is a crowded field. But this edited collection stands well above the crowd. And it does so with dignity. Through interdisciplinary analysis, the editors skillfully turn shibboleths into intrigues. Theirs is a kaleidoscopic project that scales a gamut of issues: from courtroom discipline, to gender, to the defense, to history. Through vivid deployment of unconventional methods, this edited collection unsettles conventional wisdom. It thereby pushes law and policy toward heartier horizons.Õ Ð Mark A. Drumbl, Washington and Lee University, School of Law, US International criminal justice as a discipline throws up numerous conceptual issues, engaging disciplines such as law, politics, history, sociology and psychology, to name but a few. This book addresses themes around international criminal justice from a mixture of traditional and more radical perspectives. While law, and in particular international law, is at the heart of much of the discussion around this topic, history, sociology and politics are invariably infused and, in some aspects of international criminal justice, are predominant elements. Fundamentally the exploration concerns questions of coherence and legitimacy, which are foundational to both the content and application of the discipline, and the book charts an illuminating path through these diverse perspectives. The contributions in this book come from some of the eminent scholars and practitioners in the area, and will provide some profound insight into and an enriched understanding of international criminal justice, helping to advance the field of study. This ambitious and necessary book will appeal to academics and students of international criminal law, international criminal justice, international law, transitional justice and comparative criminal law, as well as practitioners of international criminal law.

Promoting Accountability under International Law for Gross Human Rights Violations in Africa is pre-eminently a study on the work and contribution of the first international judicial mechanism, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), devoted exclusively to challenging impunity for serious international crimes committed in Africa. This volume is dedicated to the eminent international jurist Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow, the Tribunal’s longest serving Chief Prosecutor and the first prosecutor of the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals. The noted scholar and practitioner contributors discuss various aspects of the law, jurisprudence and practice of the Tribunal over its twenty year existence, while also drawing lessons for current and future international courts such as the International Criminal Court. Themes covered include the role of the international prosecutor; the prosecution of sexual and gender-based crimes; the relationship between national and international courts; the role of other international institutions in challenging impunity; and the role of African languages in international criminal trials. Given its wide ranging substantive coverage, this book will be invaluable to anyone interested in criminal justice, human rights and humanitarian law whether in Africa or other parts of the world.