In the Court's Shadow. International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability Oxford University Press 2023

Read a non-expert summary at The Conversation.

Les conclusions du livre en français pour The Conversation Afrique.

International criminal justice is still reflexively associated with high-profile international cases, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. However, whether it be in Ukraine, Colombia or the Democratic Republic of Congo, national courts now prosecute far more suspects for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Not only does the ICC play a backup role in these and many other countries, its track record of just a handful of convictions over a twenty year period stands in stark contrast to the former tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, which prosecuted hundreds of cases in the same amount of time. How did domestic accountability come to eclipse the dream of international criminal tribunals? And what are the effects of this shift from international to domestic trials for the global fight against impunity?

To answer these questions, my book examines the causes, rationales and consequences of what I call the complementarity turn – a paradigm shift toward national trials as the ultima ratio or end goal of international criminal justice. While domestic justice is now celebrated as superior to proceedings in The Hague and international prosecutors and judges use the principle of complementarity to foster cooperation with government actors, I argue that too much deference by international civil servants toward states reduces the likelihood of accountability and may enable national elites to consolidate authoritarian power. Drawing on research and interviews in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone, the book develops a tripartite framework to analyse how states and tribunals work with or despite one another, and advocates more dynamic interactions between international and domestic stakeholders to strengthen the enforcement of international criminal law.

Anticipating the ongoing debates over the interplay of domestic, international and hybrid trials in Ukraine, the book is also an appeal to reflect more critically on the field's new conventional wisdom that ‘the future of international criminal justice is domestic’, and underscores the need for further research on the merits and drawbacks of both international and national accountability initiatives.

Awards:

Winner of 2024 ABILA 'Best First Book Award', International Law Association American Branch

Additional sources for the book:

The global approach to serious crimes is shifting to domestic trials. Here's what I found in 3 African countries, in The Conversation, 24 September 2023
La lutte contre l'impunité pour les crimes graves s'oriente vers des procès nationaux : voici les conclusions de mes recherches en trois pays africains, in: The Conversation Afrique, 3 October 2023
The Turn to Domestic Accountability in the Shadow of International Criminal Tribunals, in: OUP Blog, 9 September 2023

Media:

Podcast, European Society of International Law, Peace and Security Interest Group, 25 April 2024
Podcast, New Books Network, 23 March 2024
Trailer of book launch in Zurich, Switzerland, 8 June 2023
Full video of book launch in Zurich, Switzerland, 8 June 2023
A Twitter thread summarising the book's arguments
Oxford University Press, Official publisher webpage
Free Table of Contents

Book Reviews:

Book Symposium at Völkerrechtsblog, 22-25 January 2024:
1. 1. Elena Baylis: 'Mobilizing International Networks for Domestic Accountability'
  2. Genevieve Bates: 'The Political Realities of Complementarity'
  3. Elise Keppler: 'Not All Shadows Are Created Equal. ICC’s Unique Role in Prompting Domestic Accountability Advances'
  4. Daniele Perissi and Guy Mushiata: 'Going Beyond the ICC. The Congolese Accountability Ecosystem'
  5. Stephen Rapp: 'Complementarity at the Regional Level. The Approach of the Extraordinary African Chambers to Suspects Other Than Hissène Habré'
  6. Kalika Mehta: 'In the Court’s Shadow. Writing Selectivity in the ICC’s Procedures'
  7. My response: 'The Positive Complementarity Turn. Institutional Design, Politics and the Way Forward'

Review of the book on Michael G Karnavas' blog, 26 October 2023

Bangui, Central African Republic, June 2019

Freetown, Sierra Leone, March 2016

Kigali, Rwanda, August 2015

Kinshasa, DR Congo, April 2016

Kigali, Rwanda, July 2015

Bangui, CAR, June 2019

Book Launches

Supranational Criminal Law Lecture Series, The Hague, Netherlands: 18 October 2023

Please join us on Wednesday 18 October 2023 for the SCL Lecture ‘Domestic accountability for international crimes: achieving justice at home’. The lecture will take place at the Asser Institute in The Hague and will conclude with a reception. This SCL Lecture will offer a deep-dive into the vexed issue of domestic accountability for international crimes and the local impact of international criminal tribunals.

Geneva, Switzerland: 16 October 2023

Join us on Monday at 16:00 for a discussion about Patryk Labuda's new book ‘International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability. In The Court’s Shadow’.

The author will discuss the following questions with Michelle Jarvis, Deputy Head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for #Syria and Kate Gibson, Defence Counsel before various international criminal tribunals, including the #ICC.

▶ How did domestic #accountability come to eclipse the dream of international criminal tribunals?

▶ What are the effects of this shift from international to domestic trials for the global fight against #impunity?

▶ How to critically reflect on the cliché that ‘the future of international criminal justice is domestic’?

Learn more and register: geneva-academy.ch/event/all-events/detail/411-the-complementarity-turn-domestic-justice-in-the-shadow-of-international-criminal-tribunals

Zurich, Switzerland: 8 June 2023

Please join me in Zurich, Switzerland to launch my new book on Thursday, 8 June 2023. I'll be joined by Professors Sabine Gless (University of Basel) and Florian Jeßberger (Humboldt University Berlin) in conversation with Sarah Summers (University of Zurich).

A video of this event is available here.