Procedural Innovations in War Crimes Trials

Abstract

International Criminal Tribunals created by the UN Security Council have been criticized because trials have been too slow. This article examines a number of procedural innovations attempted during the Kordić and Milošević trials, which were intended to remedy this defect. It is argued in this paper that common law is imperfect generally, and probably ill-suited for war crimes trials. The new hybrid tribunals and the International Criminal Court will no doubt draw from the jurisprudence and practice of the International Tribunals. The authors suggest that they will have to, up to a degree, depart from the overly conservative procedural approaches adopted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia if they are to remain credible in the eyes of the international community.