Book Review, Victor Peskin, International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation (2008)

Authors

Mark A. Drumbl, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Title

Criminal Law Forum

Publication Date

2009

DOI

http://doi.org/10.1007/s10609-009-9104-2

Abstract

Implementation of the law requires strategic cooperation. No surprise there: It does so even in the most taut domestic polity. Law is intrinsically contingent. And political. But what does the particularly acute dependency of international criminal law on political cooperation teach us about its pertinence? Its promise? Its limits? It is one thing to assess the functionality of international criminal law. It is another to gauge the value of international criminal law, when actuated through adversarial trials, in reconstituting shattered communities; and its effectiveness as a tool of transitional justice. At its core, Virtual Trials is an analysis about functionality. It is not a normative inquiry. Although academic lawyers may find that Virtual Trials hems itself in by the modesty of its goal, the book compellingly delivers what it aims to deliver.

Recommended Citation

Mark A. Drumbl, Book Review, 20 Crim. L.F. 495 (2009) (reviewing Victor Peskin, International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation (2008)).