Zagreb Law Review, Vol. 1 No. 1, 2012.
Review article
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: A Compromise Solution for Justice?
Marin Bonačić
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law
Dijana Hrstić
; Court Trainee at the County Court in Zagreb
Abstract
From 1975 to 1979, at the time of the Khmer Rouge regime, between 1.5 and 1.7 million people were killed. Apart from a few trials, there had been no criminal prosecution of these crimes for over 20 years. Based on experiences with ad hoc international criminal courts, a new model of international criminal courts was developed for Cambodia. Following long and difficult negotiations, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia were set up. This paper considers the historical and political background of the creation of the Extraordinary Chambers and the process of establishment of this court. The central part of the paper describes the basic features of the Chambers, especially the solutions that arose as a result of a compromise between the international community and Cambodia. Since the achieved solution was criticised from the very beginning for failing to secure the administration of justice, this paper studies the work of the Extraordinary Chambers to date in order to discover whether this criticism is justified.
Keywords
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia; Cambodia; internationalised criminal courts; hybrid criminal courts; international criminal law
Hrčak ID:
128864
URI
Publication date:
25.9.2012.
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