When Justice Meets Politics: Independence and Autonomy of "Ad Hoc International" Criminal Tribunals (Studies in Political Transition)

Are the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) independent actors, who mete out fair and un-biased justice, or instruments of a new world order, which execute the will of the most powerful states? By applying process tracing and frame analysis, this book reveals the interplay between the power politics of states, the agenda setting power of international criminal tribunals and the scope of the autonomy which the tribunals, the prosecutors and judges enjoy – and how they make use of it. The book details the mechanisms that govern judicial behaviour at the ICTY and the ICTR as well as the influence of the media, non-governmental organisations, governments and international organisations on judges and prosecutors. Last but not least, it shows why and how initially controversial frames like those about the «genocide in Srebrenica» and «the Rwandan genocide» became almost undisputed notions which are hardly challenged by anyone today.

Klaus Bachmann is a professor of political science at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw. He was an observer at the ICTY during the trials of Biljana Plavšić and Slobodan Milošević.
Thomas Sparrow-Botero is a journalist and translator. He currently works for the BBC in the United States. Previously, he reported on Central and Eastern European topics for Latin American media outlets. He covered, among other events, the judgement of Ante Gotovina and the capture of Ratko Mladić.
Peter Lambertz is a PhD candidate at the University of Leipzig. He holds a Licence en Histoire from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and an MA in Global Studies from the universities of Leipzig and Wrocław.