ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book not only offers an introduction to the fundamentals of international criminal law (ICL), its crimes and main modes of institutional enforcement, but it considers ICL both critically and contextually. It contextualises ICL by considering it as part of a larger transitional justice and peacebuilding discourse. The book addresses the relationship between ICL and international humanitarian law. It presents an assessment of the legacies of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which were among the great institutional initiatives of the early post-Cold War era, infused with great expectations. The book discusses whether international criminal tribunals are formally bound by international human rights standards and examines the institutional interplay between international criminal tribunals and international human rights courts.
