International Criminal Tribunals A Normative Defense

In the last two decades there has been a meteoric rise of international criminal tribunals and courts, and also a strengthening chorus of critics against them. Today it is hard to find strong defenders of international criminal tribunals and courts. This book attempts such a defense against an array of critics. It offers a nuanced defense, accepting many criticisms but arguing that the idea of international criminal tribunals can be defended as providing the fairest way to deal with mass atrocity crimes in a global arena. Fairness and moral legitimacy will be at the heart of this defense. The authors take up the economic and political arguments that have been powerfully expressed, as well as arguments about sovereignty, punishment, responsibility, and evidence; but in the end they show that these arguments do not defeat the idea of international criminal courts and tribunals.

Introduction; 1. Legitimacy; 2. Sovereignty; 3. Punishment; 4. Responsibility; 5. Economics; 6. Politics; 7. Evidence; 8. Fairness; 9. Concluding remarks.

Larry May is W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy, Law and Political Science at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. He has published extensively in both books and leading journals, and has twice won the prize for best work on the philosophy of war and peace from the American Philosophical Association.
Shannon Fyfe is currently a Ph.D. student in philosophy at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, where she previously obtained her J.D. in 2010. Her prior work includes an internship with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda's Office of the Prosecutor, the American Society of International Law's Arthur C. Helton Fellowship for international human rights law in Tanzania, and a fellowship with the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre.