Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The recent death of Slobodan Milosevic provides an ideal time to consider the effects of the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Serbian politics. Set up in by the UN Security Council for the explicit purpose of prosecuting war criminals, the implicit assumption made was that the Court would foster peace and reconciliation in the Balkans. This paper considers the impact of the Court on Serbia?s political development. Has the goal of encouraging peace and reconciliation been achieved? What evidence is there that the Court has pushed Serbia toward becoming a liberal democracy? Answers to these questions are imperative before we make this strategy a central part of the international community?s toolbox for dealing with post-war societies.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Law’s contribution to the construction of collective memories is explored for the case of former Yugoslav president, and defendant before the ICTY, Slobodan Milosevic. The paper argues that collective memories of historical events are partly shaped by the social sector in which they were constructed, as taboos, prescriptions and proscriptions and evidentiary criteria differ between political, scientific, religious or legal institutions. The ritual character of trials as well as the binary logic of criminal law, its ideas about guilt and innocence and individual accountability, and evidentiary criteria should thus affect collective memories of those epochs and actors that are judged in court. An empirical component is based on content analysis of a sample of New York Times articles (1989-2006), comparing reporting about Milosevic in different time periods and across social institutions. Reporting on Milosevic in these different time periods and based on legal vs. non-legal informants sheds light on the mediated input of law into the construction of collective memory.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Over the course of the past decade or so, we have witnessed vast changes in the conduct of international relations and contemporary warfare. A key element of this change has been an emphasis on humanitarian intervention and peace operations, which have been undertaken on a number of occasions, albeit in different forms. This has given rise to a body of literature analysing the various case-studies and extrapolating important findings relating to political, legal and military issues surrounding intervention and the prospects for successful post-conflict reconstruction. It has been recognized that an important factor in post-conflict reconstruction is the process of reconciliation and the attribution of responsibility for wrongs committed. In many of the cases where there has been outside intervention, there has also been some effort at promoting reconstruction and reconciliation through the deployment of some form of transitional justice. This takes a number of forms - from formal internationally sponsored mechanisms, such as the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Special Courts for Sierra Leone and Cambodia and the International Criminal Court, to locally-based trials conducted at a community level. There are, of course, a range of approaches in between. The proposed paper will consider the experience of the ad hoc tribunals and draw out lessons for the future, including charting developments since the establishment of the ICTY and ICTR. The question that will be addressed is whether criminal prosecution is an appropriate response to the commission of war crimes, and if so, what are the relative strengths and weaknesses of different types of approach in terms of its effectiveness in redressing wrongs, promoting reconciliation and as a deterrent to future. Why, for example, is an ad hoc tribunal deemed appropriate for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, a hybrid Special Court in Sierra Leone and a domestic war crimes court in Iraq? The paper will seek to answer this question by setting developments in legal and political context and discussing the relevance of considerations of international peace and security.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the role that expert witnesses, in particular historians and social scientists [e.g., demographers, political scientists], have played in trials at the ICTY. To what degree have Trial Chambers relied upon experts to build up a histori

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Widespread and systematic rape permeated both the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992. In response to these conflicts, the Yugoslav Tribunal (ICTY) and the Rwandan Tribunal (ICTR) were charged with meting justi