Milosevic on Trial: The Dilemmas of Political Justice

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• 1. Trying the vanquished
• 2. Judging the Nazis
• 3. From Nuremberg to the Hague
• 4. Policing the new world order
• 5. The dilemmas of political justice
• 6. Find out more
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Policing the new world order

The tacit demotion of state sovereignty by the Hague Tribunal is consistent with an array of post- Cold War trends. The sovereign independence of states has traditionally been associated with 'the principle of non-intervention' which guaranteed the right of populations and governments to decide their affairs internally, peacefully or not. It was this immunity from unwanted external influence that Nuremberg sought to establish as the basis for relations amongst states. After 1989, processes of economic globalization, while more geographically limited than many suppose, have been accompanied by far reaching changes in the conceptual and procedural basis by which the Great Powers impose international order. In January 1992 the Heads of Government and State of the UN Security Council substantially revised the manner in which 'threats to international peace and security' had previously been defined.

'...economic, cultural and political independence... is subject as never before to the whim of the powerful.'

The traditional measure of peace, an 'absence of war and military conflict amongst states' was judged no longer adequate, while 'the non-military sources of instability in the economic, social, humanitarian and ecological fields' were now deemed threats to international order. In actuality, this was little more than a formal recognition of a shift towards (frequently militarised) international interference in matters previously regarded as domestic. The selective application and questionable humanitarian outcomes of these endeavors have, for many, devalued the noble rhetorics that accompanied them.

In an era of increasing international governance, 'ethical foreign policy' and forceful pursuit of human rights, global inequality and the material conditions of the world's poorest have worsened. There is an abiding sense amongst the populations in some of the world's most volatile regions that the economic, cultural and political independence for which they are struggling is subject as never before to the whim of the powerful. In this global context, justice takes on a wider meaning than the narrow legalism of international criminal tribunals. But it is surely here, as well as in the more specific terms of lasting peace and political stability in the Balkans that the relevance and long-term effect of the Hague Tribunal will be measured.

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Published: 2002-03-01