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Bassiouni, M. Cherif --- "Reflections on contemporary developments in international criminal justice" [2011] ELECD 110; in Brown, S. Bartram (ed), "Research Handbook on International Criminal Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Criminal Law

Editor(s): Brown, S. Bartram

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847202789

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: Reflections on contemporary developments in international criminal justice

Author(s): Bassiouni, M. Cherif

Number of pages: 9

Extract:

18 Reflections on contemporary developments in
international criminal justice
M. Cherif Bassiouni



International criminal justice is an idea whose time has come. Its constituencies within
governments, intergovernmental organizations and international civil society have grown
significantly in the last two decades. The establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),
the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the mixed-model tribunals have contributed to
that development by showing, inter alia, that fairness in process and justice-outcomes can be
achieved.1 More importantly, these institutions have shown, even with a limited number of
cases, that accountability is on the rise and that impunity is no longer the norm.2 Admittedly,
severe constraints remain, but in view of the perennial resistance of realpolitik to the progress
of international criminal justice, the results can be said to exceed expectations.3
The new era of international criminal justice started in 1992, when the United Nations
Security Council re-engaged in international criminal law for the first time since the post-
Second World War era by establishing the Commission of Experts to investigate violations
of international humanitarian law in the then-ongoing conflict in the Former Yugoslavia.4
That effort culminated in significant fashion with the establishment in 1998 of the ICC,5 but


1 For various articles on these institutions, see 3 INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW (M. Cherif
Bassiouni ed., 3rd edn, 2008).
2 See however, M. CHERIF BASSIOUNI, THE PURSUIT OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE: A
...