Overview

After a controversial war in which he was ousted and captured by United States forces, Saddam Hussein was arraigned before a war crimes tribunal. Slobodan Milosevic died midway through his contentious trial by an international war crimes tribunal at The Hague. Calls for intervention and war crimes trials for the massacres and rapes in Sudan's Darfur region have been loud and clear, and the United States remains fiercely opposed to the permanent International Criminal Court. Are war crimes trials impartial, apolitical forums? Has international justice for war crimes become an entrenched aspect of globalization? In Global Justice, Moghalu examines the phenomenon of war crimes trials from an unusual, political perspective—that of an anarchical international society. After a controversial war in which he was ousted and captured by United States forces, Saddam Hussein was arraigned before a war crimes tribunal. Slobodan Milosevic died midway through his contentious trial by an international war crimes tribunal at The Hague. Calls for intervention and war crimes trials for the massacres and rapes in Sudan's Darfur region have been loud and clear, and the United States remains fiercely opposed to the permanent International Criminal Court. Are war crimes trials impartial, apolitical forums? Has international justice for war crimes become an entrenched aspect of globalization? In Global Justice, Moghalu examines the phenomenon of war crimes trials from an unusual, political perspective—that of an anarchical international society. He argues that, contrary to conventional wisdom, war crimes trials are neither motivated nor influenced solely by abstract notions of justice. Instead, war crimes trials are the product of the interplay of political forces that have led to an inevitable clash between globalization and sovereignty on the sensitive question of who should judge war criminals. From Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm to the Japanese Emperor Hirohito, from the trials of Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, and Charles Taylor to Belgium's attempts to enforce the contested doctrine of universal jurisdiction, Moghalu renders a compelling tour de force of one of the most controversial subjects in world politics. He argues that, necessary though it was, international justice has run into a crisis of legitimacy. While international trials will remain a policy option, local or regional responses to mass atrocities will prove more durable.

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9780275992972

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This book is a must read for anyone concerned with the future of war crimes prosecutions and humanitarian law. Moghalu challenges many common assumptions with controversial views on state sovereignty, the liberal hopes sired at Nuremberg and international justice at large. Wherever you stand on these questions you will be unable to return this volume to your shelf once you pick it up. His lucid writing, trenchant analysis and experience with Rwandan justice require every human rights activist, scholar or concerned citizen to hear his authentic voice. -Raymond M. Brown Chair, White Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis Admitted to practice before the International Criminal Court and the Special Court for Sierra Leone

<p> Anyone interested in the issues of humanitarian law in general, and war crimes prosecution in particular, will want to consider Global Justice: The Politics of War Crimes Trials , which examines underlying motivations of war crimes trials and considers the social and political forces which influence justice and decision-making processes. Students of international law, in particular, will find Global Justice packed with illustrative examples and thoughtful reflections on the international legal processes with respect to war crime prosecutions and the development of an internationally sanctioned judicial system to try them. - <p>Midwest Book Review/Internet Bookwatch/The Bookwatch

<p> Two legal concepts, erga omnes, essentially universal application, and hostis humanis generis, referring to crimes against humanity, combined with a concern for human rights that emerged after WW II and the Nuremberg and Tokyo war tribunals, has resulted in the international legal community bringing to bear increased attention to the treatment of war criminals. This is the attention the author, a UN diplomat and a legal adviser to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, brings to bear. His thesis is clear: while there has been an attempt to globalize justice, in the end international tribunals are vehicles for major states' ends. The historical precedents established in Europe and Asia, the author details, have been replayed with trials for war-related activities in the Balkans and Rwanda, followed by a similar tribunal in Sierra Leone and indictments against former Liberian leader Charles Taylor. However, in the case of Iraq and its former president, Saddam Hussein, international proceedings were not undertaken. Instead, a national war-crimes court operating under the aegis of US occupation claimed jurisdiction. In the end, the author concludes, national sovereignty reigns supreme in war crimes, despite attempts at the internationalization of justice. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through practitioners. - <p>Choice

Author Information

Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, PhD, recently served as a member of the Redesign Panel on the United Nations Internal Justice System appointed by the Secretary-General as part of the reform of the United Nations and was formerly Legal Adviser to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which he represented in negotiations that led to the establishment of the International Criminal Court. He has also worked for the United Nations in New York, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia, and Geneva. He is the author of Rwanda's Genocide: The Politics of Global Justice (2005). His op-ed commentaries have appeared in the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Legal Times, New Perspectives Quarterly, and other publications.

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