Prosecuting Crimes Against Humanity in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

American Bar Foundation, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This research will study the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the first truly international court for the prosecution of war crimes, genocide, breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and crimes against humanity. The research will use a structural theory of social movements to explain the emergence and evolution of the ICTY by focusing on political opportunities, mobilization structures, and cultural framing through human agency. Particular emphasis is placed on the tenure of Louise Arbour, the Chief Prosecutor, as she contributed elements of human agency and cultural reframing that were essential in utilizing opportunities presented by the post-cold war period and in mobilizing the organizational potential of the Tribunal. The research will involve archival work and two panel survey waves and in-person interviews with about 200 respondents randomly sampled from 320 employees of the OTP. The survey and interviews will provide a demographic profile and ethnographic picture of how the Tribunal was established and how the investigation and trial teams operate as mobilizing structures in building personal commitment to organizational goals. The surveys and interviews is to provide a stringent test of the thesis that intense interpersonal exposure to mobilizing structures, in this case through the Tribunal work teams, is a key source of commitment to Tribunal goals involving the successful prosecution of war crimes and other crimes against humanity. The theme of this work is ultimately that the collective benefit of human agency is dependent on the way in which the leadership of figures such as Louise Arbour can be translated into the everyday and collective commitment of individuals like those who make up the investigation and trial teams of The Hague Tribunal. This is the first study to focus on the actual institutionalization and operation of the ICTY as "living law," that is, as "law in action."