Courting Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Cambridge University Press, May 17, 2010 - Law - 330 pages
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) struggled to apprehend and try high-profile defendants like the Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević, and often received more criticism than praise. This volume argues that the underappreciated court has in fact made a substantial contribution to Bosnia and Herzegovina's transition to democracy. Based on more than three years of field research and several hundred interviews, this study brings together multiple research methods, including surveys, ethnography, and archival materials, to show the court's impact on five segments of Bosnian society, emphasizing the role of the social setting in translating international law in domestic contexts. Much of the early rhetoric about the transformative potential of international criminal law helped foster unrealistic expectations that institutions like the ICTY could not meet, but judged by more realistic standards, international law is seen to play a modest yet important role in postwar transitions. The findings of this study have implications for the study of international courts around the world and the role law plays in contributing to social change.
 

Contents

Transitional Justice
24
War Dayton
56
Civil
145
The Case of
174
The ICTY
210
The Hague
234
Conclusion
269
Interview Questions for Chapter 5
293
Index
315
Copyright

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About the author (2010)

Lara J. Nettelfield is a Lecturer in International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. Prior to joining Royal Holloway, she taught at the University of Exeter and Columbia University in New York City. She has published in the International Journal of Transitional Justice and the Canadian International Council's International Journal. She has worked for the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in addition to nongovernmental organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nettelfield's writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Sun. Her research has been funded by Fulbright Hays, the German Marshall Fund, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX), the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, and Columbia University's Harriman Institute. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and an A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley. Courting Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina won the 2011 Marshall Shulman Book Prize of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).

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