Justice Program

Assisting the Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals

In 1996, the Public International Law and Policy Group entered into an arrangement with Richard Goldstone, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, pursuant to which law students under the supervision of several academic members of the Group would provide legal research and analysis to the war crimes Prosecutor on issues pending before the Tribunal. In 1997, the program was expanded to render assistance to the Office of the Prosecutor of the Rwanda Tribunal. In 2003, the program was further expanded to render assistance to the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The Program is currently run as the "War Crimes Research Lab" at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and as the “War Crimes Prosecution Project” at New England School of Law.

Funded by annual grants from the Open Society Institute (George Soros Foundation), this program has to date provided more than 150 legal research memoranda and supporting research materials to the international tribunals. The legal memoranda cover virtually every major legal issue that has arisen in the course of the international trials, from the contours of command responsibility to the definition of genocide.

This program has become an important component in the prosecution of international war criminals. As the Chief of Prosecutions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda recently wrote: "The Office of the Prosecutor has come to place increased reliance on the generous support and ongoing assistance that the Public International Law and Policy Group, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and New England School of Law are providing. The research and materials are regularly utilized by trial attorneys to assist in the preparation and conduct of proceedings against accused charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes."

With permission of the Office of the Prosecutor, with some time restrictions, the memos will be available for worldwide use at the International Humanitarian Law Portal, established by the Public International Law and Policy Group at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. The memos can be searched by date published, title, or keywords.

The Group’s International Humanitarian Law Research Portal also contains over ten thousand links to internet sites related to international humanitarian law, arranged alphabetically by subject area and including a summary of the content of each site, making it one of the most comprehensive research sites related to international humanitarian law and international criminal tribunals on the internet.

Justice Program Publications