enter search text
advanced search
Combined Academic
Publishers Ltd
15a Lewin's Yard, East Street,
Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 1HQ
UK
Phone +44 (0)1494 581601
Fax +44 (0)1494 581602
E-mail
Nick Esson
www.combinedacademic.co.uk
ABOUT SSL CERTIFICATES
We have 1 items in our Catalogue that match your search for
9780822347460.
Twilight of Impunity
(
Subtitle:
The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic)
by
Judith Armatta
( Hardback)
ISBN:
9780822347460
Publisher:
Duke University Press
Price:
£27.99
Published in UK:
23/09/2010
An eyewitness account of the first major international war-crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials,
Twilight of Impunity
is a gripping guide to the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The historic trial of the “Butcher of the Balkans” began in 2002 and ended abruptly with Milosevic’s death in 2006. Judith Armatta, a lawyer who spent three years in the former Yugoslavia during Milosevic’s reign, had a front-row seat at the trial. In
Twilight of Impunity
she brings the dramatic proceedings to life, explains complex legal issues, and assesses the trial’s implications for victims of the conflicts in the Balkans during the 1990s and international justice more broadly. Armatta acknowledges the trial’s flaws, particularly Milosevic’s grandstanding and attacks on the institutional legitimacy of the International Criminal Tribunal. Yet she argues that the trial provided an indispensable legal and historical narrative of events in the former Yugoslavia and a valuable forum for victims to tell their stories and seek justice. It addressed crucial legal issues, such as commanders’ responsibility for crimes committed by subordinates, and it helped to create a framework for conceptualizing and organizing other large-scale international criminal tribunals. The prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague was an important step toward ending impunity for leaders who perpetrate egregious crimes against humanity.
Review Quote:
“[In
Twilight of Impunity
] Armatta - a journalist, scholar and human rights lawyer who had a front-row seat at the proceedings - trains her focus on the trial of Milosevicc itself rather than attempting to offer a pure history of the conflicts in Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Croatia. Nevertheless, indications of the many different versions of that history do emerge, and clearly the complexities are huge.... The intricacies of history in the region make the book's chronology, bibliography, "cast of characters" list and boxed explanations as essential as they are welcome in digesting this complex story. The detail is overwhelming at times, and in places one finger really must be kept on the glossary. This is not a history, but it tells a history; it is not a law report, but it reflects how justice might - or might not - work.... Armatta's absorbing work suggests that it is found somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of views on such events, and that the victors do not have a monopoly on truth or morality. That much, at least, is certain.” -
Times Higher Education
“In
Twilight of Impunity
, Judith Armatta has done for the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the Butcher of the Balkans, what Hannah Arendt did for the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Architect of the Holocaust: present an unflinching depiction of the crimes, the anguish of the victims and witnesses, the arrogance of the killers, the virtues and flaws of the judicial process, and the banality of the evil that can arise when leaders assume they enjoy impunity.”--Chuck Sudetic, author of
Blood and Vengeance
and co-author of
Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity
“As the only independent lawyer to have monitored and reported regularly from the Milosevic trial courtroom from its first day, Judith Armatta has produced an unparalleled, first-hand account of the first truly international war crimes trial of a national leader in history. Armatta captures courtroom atmosphere and personalities with a thoroughly engaging reportorial style, but brings her legal and regional expertise to bear in explaining and analyzing important testimony and judicial decisions.
Twilight of Impunity
is not only a singular history of the trial, but a compelling narrative of the major battles and convoluted diplomatic struggles of the Balkan wars. The book is filled with previously unreported insights arising from the testimony of major figures of the era, including Milosevic, former world leaders, NATO officials, victims, judges and prosecutors. A compelling and thorough source of unconventional wisdom on the trial and its impact, this book must be read by anyone hoping to understand the Balkans and the new era of international war crimes trials.”--Nina Bang-Jensen, former Executive Director/Counsel, Coalition for International Justice
“Will Armatta’s book, or others like it, get us any closer to achieving what is arguably the most valuable and probably the most realisable objective of these courts, which would be to lay out a record of evidence that could be used to justify earlier and more decisive political and military action in future conflicts with similar potential for war crimes? We can hope so. But we need to recognise that there is no evidence that the prospect of punishment deters would-be perpetrators of mass atrocities.” – Geoffrey Nice, deputy prosecutor in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic,
London Review of Books
