ABSTRACT
The only known institutions for international criminal trials had been the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals that tried the Second World War criminals. The International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has been praised “as a success in bringing to account those who committed some of the most heinous crimes during the war in the former Yugoslavia”. As a distinct category, the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda are informed by the same jurisprudence, which is inherent in the various Statutes that established them. The Special Court of Sierra Leone and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia all fall into the genre of hybrid tribunals. The fact that the International Criminal Court could clear a rebel leader while moving against government forces in some instances was a more robust affirmation of not just its legitimacy and powers, but also its credibility.
