Regionalized Hybrid Courts

Abstract

International collaboration in the first wave of hybrid criminal tribunals established from 2000-2007 followed a consistent pattern: the international partner in each instance was the United Nations. In the second wave of hybrid courts established since 2013, several of the new and proposed hybrid courts have been structured as partnerships with regional organizations: the African Union and the European Union. This chapter assesses this regional engagement in the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Special Prosecutor’s Office, the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Courts of Senegal, and the proposed Hybrid Court for South Sudan. While regional partnerships in hybrid courts are a new phenomenon, they are an expression of a long-term trend toward the development of regional commitments to transitional justice and international criminal law, as previously signaled by the Malabo Protocol and other initiatives. These regionalized hybrid courts also represent a manifestation of the European Union and African Union’s interests in regional authority, security, and norms. However, regionalized hybrid criminal tribunals do not thus far manifest most of the predicted benefits of regionalized transitional justice institutions that were anticipated by scholars.

Keywords: Hybrid courts, Internationalized criminal courts, Hybrid tribunals, International criminal law, Security, Regionalism, European Union, African Union, Extraordinary African Chambers, Kosovo Specialist Chambers

JEL Classification: K14, K33, N40, N44, N47