ABSTRACT

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) website, now grandfathered into the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) since its closure in December 2015, is less schematic. The Yugoslav crisis brought Europe's first real war in two generations, a jarring counterpoint to the optimism of post-Cold War rapprochement. The Rwandan tribunal was institutionally bound to its older sister in The Hague in order 'to ensure a unity of legal approach, as well as economy and efficiency of resources'. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) statute required a nexus to armed conflict for crimes against humanity. Germans' initial resistance to the trials gave way to acceptance, and now the Nuremberg legacy forms a moral foundation of the German state and society's humane policies. The institutional constraints and the politics that make states favour one-off solutions and disfavour a permanent, plenary court did not end when the Rome Statute was signed or when the International Criminal Tribunals (ICTs) closed.