UN Assist. Secretary Gen. for Legal Affairs Johnson Talks about International Tribunals
Colorado Law was very pleased to welcome the United Nation’s Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Larry Johnson today for a talk on the role and efficacy of war crimes tribunals. Mr. Johnson was on the team that drafted the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), creating the first war crimes tribunal since Nuremburg. That Statute became the blueprint for the Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia tribunals. In addition, Mr. Johnson works as a Professor of Global Affairs at NYU. He is also currently working on setting up the Lebanon tribunal.
His talk “The Proliferation of UN War Crimes Tribunals: What Works and What Doesn't?” provided an overview of the objectives, legal basis, applicable law, composition, and financing of the tribunals, comparing and contrasting each. He noted that each tribunal is context-specific and has been set up accordingly. He also pointed out that the convictions and sentences of 70 people to date indicate the courts’ effectiveness. Tensions between defense rights and prosecutorial strategy on behalf of victims have hampered the tribunals’ efficiency at times. Nevertheless, he questioned whether they were any more expensive than domestic trials as has been claimed.
The Doman International Law Society sponsored the talk.
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| UN Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs Larry Johnson |
