A detour

the internet in cambodia is far from advanced and recent assignments and events have kept me from this board. I've decided to divert to my current work and get comments on it. Right now I am working on judicial independence and impartiality for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. I don't expect the readers of this blog to understand the multitude of issues in this topic but maybe I can put my work on this board finally as I move ahead in some of work research. Basically the ECCC is under enormous pressure. It is faced with a cultural, political and social climate that appears to hinder its every move. This is to be expected. The Court is far from an ideal structure for dealing with the war crimes and crimes against humanity of Khmer Rouge leaders perpetrated more than 30 years ago. To compound the problems of the ECCC, it must prosecute these leaders within the Cambodian Court system using a majority of Cambodian justices and a supermajority rule that prevents any decision from being determined without the concurrence of an international judge. The issues go on and on of course. Probably more than could be stated in any blog. But regardless, I'll end with a question that ultimately strikes at the heart of any international war tribunal: What is the purpose of international law? Is it more appropriate to consider these courts as mediums for conferring legitimacy to victorious powers (i.e. Nuremberg's victor's justice) or should we really adhere to strict rules of procedure in order to truly live up to the concepts of justice? Of course the former seems wrong today, but we mustn't forget that for prosecutiorial goals, Nuremberg was extremely successful. Some Nazis were acquitted but the majority were prosecuted and done so quite quickly. On the other hand, it recieved much criticism for putting biased judges on the court as well as lacking many procedural safeguards and imposing retroactive laws. One justice in Tokyo was actually a Bataan Death March survivor! On the other hand, we have the ICTY -dealing with Yugoslav criminals. The Prosecutor followed a much more strict regimen in building the case against the Yugoslav war criminals, so much so that Milosovec died before even receiving a sentence! The difficulty in prosecuting war criminals is always compounded by politics and this explains my initial discussion on Law, Politics and Culture. However due to time constraints and technological difficulties, I decided to jump to the chase and move right into the primary topic for this blog.