Outsourcing justice

  That’s former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor surrounded by serious-looking UN peacekeepers. It almost makes me believe in the UN again. Almost. The remarkable story of Taylor’s arrest took another interesting turn today when it was reported that the tribunal in Sierra Leone has asked the International Criminal Court in the Hague to host the ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.
609035_ctaylor5.jpg
609035_ctaylor5.jpg

 

 

That’s former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor surrounded by serious-looking UN peacekeepers. It almost makes me believe in the UN again. Almost.

The remarkable story of Taylor’s arrest took another interesting turn today when it was reported that the tribunal in Sierra Leone has asked the International Criminal Court in the Hague to host the trial (the ICC seems all but certain to say yes, though a UN Security Council resolution may be required). It’s apparent that the governments in Sierra Leone and Liberia are nervous about the potentially destabilizing impact of a trial, and outsourcing justice to the Hague is a nice compromise.

t’s unclear whether the Bush administration knew beforehand that the ICC would get a call. Top Bush folks, and UN Ambassador John Bolton in particular, have been hesitant to legitimize the ICC. In this case, the fact that the ICC will be merely hosting the trial — not conducting it — should save face all around.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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