What Internationals Know: Improving the Effectiveness of Post-Conflict Justice Initiatives

Abstract

The field of post-conflict or transitional justice has developed rapidly over the last thirty years. The United States, the United Nations, and many other international organizations, governments, and institutions have contributed to hundreds of international criminal trials and rule of law programs. International staff, known as “internationals,” travel among post-conflict states and international criminal tribunals to carry out these initiatives. In addition to being a field of work, post-conflict justice also constitutes an emergent body of legal knowledge, composed of substantive standards, rules of procedure, best practices, and other elements. Just as the programs and institutions of post-conflict justice have grown quickly on the ground, so also its body of knowledge has become an established, if still evolving, set of norms and practices. This Article contributes to the literature on transitional justice by examining how internationals are developing the information and skills that comprise post-conflict justice knowledge, and whether they are able to effectively implement that knowledge in their work.

Keywords: International criminal law, Rule of law, Post-conflict justice, Transitional justice, International organizations, International Criminal Court, United Nations, international criminal tribunal, hybrid tribunal, failed state, post-conflict state, knowledge, skills, employment, turnover