Experiments in International Criminal Justice: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Authors

John D. Ciorciari, University of Michigan, Gerald R. Ford School of Public PolicyFollow
Anne Heindel, Documentation Center of Cambodia

Abstract

Important experiments in international criminal justice have been taking place at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC or Court), a tribunal created by the United Nations and Cambodian Government to adjudicate some of the most egregious crimes of the Pol Pot era.2 The tribunal opened its doors in 2006, and although its work continues, its first seven years of operations provide an opportunity to evaluate its performance and judge the extent to which legal and institutional experiments at the ECCC have been successful to date. This Article will show that, in general, the ECCC’s most unique and unprecedented features have been among the most problematic, providing useful lessons to help guide the reform and design of future mass crimes proceedings.

Recommended Citation

John D. Ciorciari & Anne Heindel, Experiments in International Criminal Justice: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, 35 Mich. J. Int'l L. 369 (2014).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjil/vol35/iss2/2