Intrigue in the Hague

The issue I wrote about this morning–allegations that judges at the international tribunal for Yugoslavia have been tweaking rulings to protect powerful states–has taken a bizarre turn. A Danish newspaper reported today on a leaked email from a tribunal judge making that same allegation: Harhoff, an expert in international law who was appointed a judge ...

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

The issue I wrote about this morning--allegations that judges at the international tribunal for Yugoslavia have been tweaking rulings to protect powerful states--has taken a bizarre turn. A Danish newspaper reported today on a leaked email from a tribunal judge making that same allegation:

The issue I wrote about this morning–allegations that judges at the international tribunal for Yugoslavia have been tweaking rulings to protect powerful states–has taken a bizarre turn. A Danish newspaper reported today on a leaked email from a tribunal judge making that same allegation:

Harhoff, an expert in international law who was appointed a judge by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, directly accuses the president of ICTY, American Theodor Meron, of putting his judges under pressure to acquit war criminals. The motive apparently has to do with the fact that the court in The Hague is creating a – from the military point of view – alarming practice, which can mean that top-ranking officers or leaders can be put on trialif their subordinates have committed war crimes, even if the officer’s part in these crimes was a minor one.

"It would seem", writes Judge Harhoff, "that the military establishment" in leading states such as Israel and the US "felt that the tribunal was getting too close to top-ranking military commands."

He continues:

"Has an Israeli or American official influenced the American President of the tribunal to effect a change of course?" Harhoff writes in the letter.

The story is causing quite a stir among court-watchers. See reaction here and here, in particular.

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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