International Criminal Tribunals

Abstract

In the last two decades there has been a meteoric rise of international criminal tribunals and courts and also a strengthening chorus of critics against them. Today it is hard to find strong defenders of international criminal tribunals and courts. This book attempts such a defense against an array of critics. It offers a nuanced defense, accepting many criticisms but arguing that the idea of international criminal tribunals can be defended as providing the fairest way to deal with mass atrocity crimes in a global arena. Fairness and moral legitimacy will be at the heart of this defense. The authors take up the economic and political arguments that have been powerfully expressed, as well as arguments about sovereignty, punishment, responsibility, and evidence; but in the end they show that these arguments do not defeat the idea of international criminal courts and tribunals.

Shredded

“…102 Due to its international links, the JEP has faced similar critiques as previous experiments in international(ized) criminal justice. 103 Like the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), for example, some commentators have said that the war continued both inside and outside the courtroom through mass media or legal discourse. 104 Yet from a liberal and technocratic perspective, an international jurisdiction (even an ad hoc one) may be more legitimate than a domestic system, not least since it is endowed with international support -or a veneer of it.…”

The problem of selective prosecution and the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court

“… 8 8 See May and Fyfe (2017) and Christiano (2013) on the character of international political society. …”