Justice in a Time of War: The True Story Behind the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Eugenia and Hugh M. Stewart Series on Eastern Europe)

Roy Gutman
"Blunt and unsparing yet fair and factual, this book sheds a revealing light on the development of The Hague Tribunal."

Antonio Cassese, former Judge and President, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
"This is no doubt one of the best books so far written on international criminal justice."

Book Description
Can we achieve justice during war? Should law substitute for realpolitik? Can an international court act against the global community that created it? Justice in a Time of War is a translation from the French of the first complete, behind-the-scenes story of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, from its proposal by Balkan journalist Mirko Klarin through recent developments in the trial of Slobodan Miloševic. It is also a meditation on the conflicting intersection of law and politics in achieving justice and peace. Le Monde's review (November 3, 2000) of the original edition recommended Hazan's book as a nuanced account of the Tribunal that should be a must-read for the new leaders of Yugoslavia. "The story Pierre Hazan tells is that of an institution which, over the course of the years, has managed to escape in large measure from the initial hidden motives and manipulations of those who created it (and not only the Americans)." With insider interviews filling out every scene, Hazan tells a chaotic story of war that raged while the Western powers cobbled together a tribunal in order to avoid actual intervention. The international lawyers and judges for this rump world court started with nothing--but they ultimately established the tribunal as an unavoidable actor in the Balkans. The West had created the Tribunal in 1993, hoping to threaten international criminals with indictment and thereby force an untenable peace. In 1999, the Tribunal suddenly became useful to NATO countries as a means by which to criminalize Miloševic's regime and to justify military intervention in Kosovo and in Serbia. Ultimately, this hastened the end of Miloševic's rule and led the way to history's first war crimes trial of a former president by an international tribunal. Hazan's account of the Tribunal's formation and evolution questions the contradictory policies of the Western powers and illuminates a cautionary tale for the reader: realizing ideals in a world enamored of realpolitik is a difficult and often haphazard activity.

About the Author
PIERRE HAZAN is a journalist with Libération in Paris and Le Temps in Geneva, Switzerland. The author of three books, he has studied at the Center for Strategic Studies at Aberdeen University and the Post-Graduate Institute for International Studies in Geneva. JAMES THOMAS SNYDER, who translated the book, is a journalist and former U.S. Congressional aide.


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The International Criminal Court, now sitting at the Hague hearing cases from the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, is the first such tribunal in 60 years. Hazan, a journalist with Lib ration in Paris, tells its story from the first UN Security Council resolution in 1993 to the continuing trial of Slobodan Milosevic. In his view, a few determined individuals have pushed and prodded and tested the limits of their authority to force progress on a reluctant tribunal. Throughout, the author is sharply critical of the Western governments for their persistent efforts to negotiate ceasefire settlements with those they are now trying to indict, their failure to provide any support or funding for the tribunal, and their efforts to avoid intervention on the ground despite additional casualties and suffering. The story of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans is well told in Elizabeth Neuffer's Key to My Neighbor's House. The tension between intervention and a law-based resolution of the conflict emerges clearly here. The strident tone may offend some readers, but the points here need to be made. Most suitable for academic and law libraries.-Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.


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