Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1996
Abstract
On October 2, 1995, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia' held that the Tribunal has jurisdiction to try Dusko Tadic, a Bosnian Serb, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Appeals Chamber ruled that the establishment of the Tribunal was lawful, that the Tribunal's primacy over national courts does not violate international law, and that the Tribunal's jurisdiction extends to crimes committed in internal armed conflict. The decision cleared the way for the first international war crimes trial since Nuremberg and Tokyo. The Appeals Chamber was right to uphold the validity of the Tribunal and its primacy over national courts, but, as this article will argue, the Chamber's sweeping interpretation of the Tribunal's jurisdiction raises some troubling questions.
Recommended Citation
Geoffrey R. Watson, The Humanitarian Law of the Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal: Jurisdiction in Prosecutor v. Tadic, 36 VA. J. INT’L L. 687 (1996).