Leaders Facing Court

Geert-Jan Knoops, lawyer and professor of international law, and Robin Ravensbergen, political scientist and public administration expert, investigate the threats and challenges in international law.

Since the Nuremberg Trials against the leaders of the Nazi regime, international law has undergone a dramatic development. For the first time, political and military leaders were held personally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since then, leaders like Augusto Pinochet and Slobodan Miloševic have been prosecuted. Now, international criminal law focuses on incumbent leaders like Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, in an uncertain world where international tribunals are confronted with accusations of selectivity and politicization.

What are the limits of international prosecution? How does the law arrive at the choice to prosecute certain leaders and not others? And what future does international justice hold in an era when the International Criminal Court is increasingly coming under (geo)political pressure?