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 first trial of its ultimate
quarry, Slobodan Milosevi_. 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 president 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 (not only the
Americans)."
With insider interviews filling out every scene, author Pierre Hazan
tells a chaotic story of war while the Western powers cobbled together a
tribunal in order to avoid actual intervention, hoping to threaten
international criminals with indictment and thereby to force an
untenable peace. The international lawyers and judges for this rump
world court started with nothing--no office space, no assistants, no
computers, not even a budget--but they ultimately established the
tribunal as an unavoidable actor in the Balkans. This development was
also a reflection of the evolving political situation: the West had
created the Tribunal in 1993 as an alibi in order to avoid military
intervention, but in 1999, the Tribunal suddenly became useful to NATO
countries as a means by which to criminalize Milosevic's regime and to
justify military intervention in Kosovo and in Serbia. Ultimately, this
hastened the end of Milosevic's rule and led the way to history's first
war crimes trial of a former president by an international tribunal.
Ironically, this triumph for international law was not really intended
by the Western leaders who created the court. They sought to placate,
not shape, public opinion. But the determination of a handful of people
working at the Tribunal transformed it into an active agent for change,
paving the road for the International Criminal Court and greatly
advancing international criminal law. Yet the Tribunal's existence poses
as many questions as it answers. How independent can a U.N. Tribunal be
from the political powers that created it and sustain it politically and
financially ?
Hazan remains cautious though optimistic for the future of international
justice. His history remains a cautionary tale to the reader: realizing
ideals in a world enamored of realpolitik is a difficult and often
haphazard activity.
