The Argument for the Prosecution: David Scheffer Reviews Katherine Sikkink’s The Justice Cascade for the New Republic

  • by David Scheffer
  • — 26 Sep, 2011

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE, often translated as the prosecution of war criminals before international criminal tribunals, is an easy target for its many skeptics. They demand proof of a negative proposition, namely that the tribunals and their cases actually deter further atrocities such as genocide. Indeed, they believe that prosecutions, or the threat of them, provide incentives for human rights violators to increase their oppression and avoid peace deals. And at the other end of the spectrum, critics representing an activist civil society pursue idealistic visions of justice and sometimes consider the tribunals so seriously flawed as to merit abandonment…

Read more: ctm_blog_09-26-2011_CTM_The Argument for the Prosecution _ Cambodia Tribunal Monitor

Cambodia Tribunal Monitor’s Trial Observer posts are written according to the personal observations and opinions of the writer and do not constitute a transcript of ECCC proceedings or the views of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor and/or its partners. Official court transcripts for the ECCC’s hearings may be accessed at the ECCC website.

To access Trial Observer posts prior to 2013,
please visit our Archived Site.