Overview
"The rapid development of the use of international courts and tribunals to try heads of state for genocide and other crimes against humanity has been welcomed by most people, because they think that the establishment of international tribunals and courts to try notorious dictators represents a triumph of law over impunity. In ""A History of Political Trials"", John Laughland takes a very different and controversial view, namely that political trials are inherently against the rule of law and almost always involve the abuse of process, as well as being seriously hypocritical.By means of detailed consideration of the trials of figures as disparate as Charles I, Louis XVI, Erich Honecker and Saddam Hussein, Laughland shows that the guilt of the accused has always been assumed in advance, that the judges are never impartial, that the process is always unfair and biased in favour of the prosecution, that the defence is not permitted to use all the arguments at its disposal, and that often the accusers have done exactly what they accuse the defence of having done. All the trials he recounts were marked by arbitrariness and injustice, often gross injustice. Although the chapters are short and easy to read, they are the fruit of formidable erudition and wide reading. The general reader will be forced by this book to re-examine the ideas on this subject, and will be much less sanguine about the possibility of bringing dictators and other leaders to genuine justice."
Full Product Details
Author: John Laughland
Publisher: Peter Lang Ltd
Imprint: Peter Lang Ltd
Edition: 2nd Revised edition
Volume: 7
Weight: 0.600kg
ISBN: 9781906165055
ISBN 10: 190616505
Pages: 315
Publication Date: 26 December 2008
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
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Reviews
This is a formidable and well-documented counterblast to a developing modern orthodoxy, expressing a point of view that many readers will not even have suspected existed, let alone read. (Anthony Daniels, The Spectator) A useful and controversial contribution to the debate about victor's justice, and a valuable warning that international war crimes tribunals need to operate with precision and care. (Jonathan Steele, The Guardian)
This is a formidable and well-documented counterblast to a developing modern orthodoxy, expressing a point of view that many readers will not even have suspected existed, let alone read - Anthony Daniels, Spectator. A useful and controversial contribution to the debate about victor's justice, and a valuable warning that international war crimes tribunals need to operate with precision and care - Jonathan Steele, Guardian. In this important, timely and cogently argued book John Laughland lays bare the truth that political trials, by which he means trials of heads of state or government ministers for acts of state...have never been properly constituted nor properly conducted judicial proceedings... Invaluable - Robert Stewart in the Spectator. A stupendous book - Daniel Hannan, Daily Telegraph. Laughland asks some pointed questions that will discomfit even those who disagree with him. Who has the right to adjudicate the acts of another state? What accountability is there for international tribunals? To what extent are they victors' justice? - Adam LeBor, Sunday Telegraph. This richly documented, very readable and strikingly indignant book shows how a well-meant global development of our times has gone off the rails ... How will the community of human rights activists deal with John Laughland's charges? I hope we shall be told - Geoffrey Best, Times Literary Supplement.
Author Information
The Author: John Laughland is an author and journalist who has taught politics and philosophy at universities in Paris and Rome. He has published several books including The Tainted Source: The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea (1997) and Travesty: The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic and the Corruption of International Justice (2007). He has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Spectator, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday and many other British, European, and American newspapers.
