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The conference is co-sponsorted by Indiana University's Russian and East European Institute and Center for West European Studies.
The conference will be held at the Law School, at the corner of Third Street and Indiana Avenue — a short walk southwest from the Indiana Memorial Union (map).
It has been three years since the longest and most prominent war crimes trial of the modern era was brought to an abrupt halt by the defendant's death - leaving the court, the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, and the world community without a definitive legal resolution. Precisely because the trial ended without final judgment, its meaning and value are especially contested: for some, the indictment and trial of a sitting head of state reaffirmed the importance of international criminal law as a robust response to state criminality; for others, the collapse of this sprawling case proved the insufficiency of judicial responses to complex mass violence.
The Indiana University Maurer School of Law, in cooperation with the Russian and East European Institute and the Center for West European Studies, propose to conduct an autopsy of the Milosevic trial - a clinical evaluation of the trial and its termination - and a biopsy of the institutional context in which the trial played out, as well as a prognosis for its legacy and impact.
It is an opportune time to consider both the full course of the Milosevic trial and its developing impact on global efforts to regulate mass violence and war. Serious scholarship on the trial is now beginning to appear, clarifying the lines of contestation about what the trial meant and what lessons we should draw from it. Looking forward, the ICTY is nearing completion of its work, and legacy issues involving the trial - including how to dispose of the enormous archive of evidence - are increasingly on the agenda. The International Criminal Court (ICC) and other ad hoc tribunals need to take the lessons of Milosevic into account in designing their own trials and institutions. A comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of the Milosevic trial's impact is therefore well-positioned to make an important contribution to both academic study and policy consideration of international criminal law's role in post-conflict justice.
Key issues this conference will address include:
We envision an arc in the conference's deliberations from past to future: from initial panels evaluating the course and context of the trial itself, though a speculative investigation of how the trial might have ended, to the final panels considering its potential impact of the future development of post-conflict justice. Was the trial on track to conviction - and on what counts? What effect would judgment have had? Why was the trial so long - what strategic and design choices affected the process? Most importantly, what is its legacy - for the ICTY, ICC and international criminal law more broadly, and for our understanding of intervention in and after conflict? The conference will specifically address the ICTY's completion strategy and the disposition of its enormous archives.
| February 18, 2010 | |
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Introduction and Welcome |
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| February 19, 2010 | |
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Panel I: Causes of Death Milosevic's death was the formal cause of the trial's termination, but is that what killed the trial? Was it murder, suicide, or a preventable accident? This panel will examine why the trial developed as it did: What strategies were adopted by the prosecution, defense and judges? What role did Milosevic's self-representation play? Did the ICTY's design and norms contribute to the ultimate demise? Papers will consider:
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Panel II: Reporting the Demise From the first day of the trial, impressions of the trial varied widely - from dramatic catharsis to the tedium of an actual trial in real time. The Prosecution has also been criticized for attempting to 'tell the story of the whole war.' This panel will examine the role of narrative, media and public perception in the trial. What role did media play in the development of the trial, and perception of it? How did the Tribunal's parties use or abuse the public aspects of the trial? Did events in the courtroom shape attitudes in the former conflict zone? Were courtroom strategies themselves affected by perceptions in the former Yugoslavia? Papers will consider:
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| February 20, 2010 | |
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Panel III. Final Examination The Milosevic trial was only 40 hours from conclusion, at least on the official calendar. So what would have happened? What would the prosecution and defense have said? What judgment? Adopting a different format from the other panels, this panel will allow participants to advance the best case for conviction and acquittal in a formal setting, and then dissect those claims. It will consider in particular the charge of genocide: What would it have taken to secure a conviction? What do the difficulties at the ICTY in connection with genocide charges tell us about the prospects for prosecuting the 'crime of crimes'? Papers will consider:
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Plenary Address A prominent journalist will comment on the interrupted conclusion of the Milosevic trial and its reception in the Balkans and broader global community. |
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Panel IV. Disposing of the Body For an institution that deals with killing on a massive scale, the ICTY has been challenged in dealing with actual death. What problems arise when defendants, witnesses, or other trial participants pass? This panel will consider the practical, political, and institutional challenges of death in the tribunal. Are there structural strategies for dealing with termination of trials? Should there be official declarations, final reports or other mechanisms for reaching conclusions and closure when a defendant or suspect dies prematurely? Should we try the dead? What ought to be done with the ICTY's archive of evidence and testimony? Papers will consider:
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| February 21, 2010 | |
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Panel V. Reanimation For Milosevic, the trial is over; for the rest of us, it lives on. Several of Milosevic's original co-defendants have recently been convicted or acquitted, and the crimes alleged in Milosevic's trial figure into other cases before the domestic war crimes courts of the former Yugoslavia. The trials of Saddam Hussein and Charles Taylor seem clearly to have been influenced by the experience of Milosevic's sprawling trial. What role has his terminated trial played, and what role will it? What lessons does it hold for the design of justice after other conflicts? This panel will address the legacy of the Milosevic trial - for other cases at the ICTY, for the ICC, and for post-conflict justice, both in the Balkans and more broadly. Discussion will be located in the context of the ICTY's Completion Strategy. Papers will consider:
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Closing Address A leading academic commentator on the trial from the former Yugoslavia will consider the implications of the Milosevic trial for jurisprudence and the design of future post-conflict justice projects. |
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