ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, issues of accountability and reconciliation in the aftermath of mass atrocities have increasingly dominated the field of international human rights. Indeed, the proliferation of international and domestic courts, truth commissions, civil compensation schemes, and other mechanisms for confronting the past has spawned its own scholarly field: transitional justice. This chapter looks at three recent examples of hybrid courts, those established in Kosovo, East Timor, and Sierra Leone to hear cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other mass atrocities in those countries. A hybrid court is not a panacea. It is merely the most recent step in this endless process of creative adaptation. Hybrid domestic/international courts are merely the most recent creative adaptation, and those who work in this area should soberly assess the promise and pitfalls of hybrid courts, while celebrating the innovative spirit that has led to their creation.
