Conference paper
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW AND HISTORY – INTRODUCTION TO A RESEARCH PROJECT
Christian Axboe Nielsen
; Bygning 1328, Bartholins Allé 16, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark
Abstract
The author’s comprehensive research project, of which this article is but an introductory
outline, inquires into the kind of history written out by the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In order to investigate
the interrelation between criminal law and history, the author faced the
following question: what would the history of the disintegration of Yugoslavia
and of conflicts in its territory look like if all we had were the judgements of
the Hague Tribunal? The author bases his reply on an analysis of first-instance
judgements of the Trial Chamber, from which he singles out “historical facts”,
and rejects the reflections of the Chamber on legal and procedural issues. As
a model case he uses the first ICTY judgement pronounced against Duško
Tadić (the trial started on May 7, 1996, and the judgement was pronounced
a year later). Although he estimates that the first judgement was not written
in an optimal way, the author deems that most preliminarily established historical
facts were relevant to historiography, and that, in particular, the judgement
offers a universally acceptable notion of the history of the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia and of socialist Yugoslavia. He is of the opinion that the extensive
documentation of ICTY (the “Hague Tribunal”) will have a major influence
on the work of future generations of historians. Such a unique and replete archive
of historical material is increasingly available to the public and to scientists
through ICTY’s online database. The most recent scientific works dealing
with the former Yugoslavia also make use of the Tribunal’s judgements
and documentation. Scientists will have to pay due attention to the narratives
included therein.
Keywords
international criminal law; history; International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Hrčak ID:
55117
URI
Publication date:
12.4.2010.
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