ABSTRACT
By virtue of Art 15 of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Statute and Art 14 of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Statute the Rules of Procedure and Evidence were adopted on 11 February 1994 and 29 June 1995 respectively. The principal drafters of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the ICTY were the Trial Chamber judges and Appeals Chamber judges, in co-operation with States and organisations. Proposals were submitted by Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US as well as theAmerican BarAssociation, Helsinki Watch, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and the International Women’s Human Rights Law Clinic, as well as the judges themselves.1 The purpose of this inclusionary approach was to ensure that different domestic legal systems would be considered and incorporated.2 Particularly common law and civil law systems, the leading systems in the world and therefore the most influential systems in the development of international criminal law and procedure, differ significantly and have far-remote historical roots.
