The arrest and transfer of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic to the international tribunal at The Hague is but the latest of several dramatic twists and turns in the last few years in the search for universal justice. Just as the indictment issued against him during the NATO war in Kosovo was described as an electrifying moment, so his passage to The Hague has been hailed as a defining moment in international justice.
Activists assert the primacy of justice without borders; skeptics warn of international anarchy if we depart from realpolitik in a state-based system of world order; opponents fear outcomes of injustice across borders. More worrisome than the challenge to national sovereignty is the unpredictability of the potent new weapon as an instrument of the new international order. Its potential for abuse for mischievous, vexatious and vindictive purposes is unlimited unless codified in permanent and universal institutions.
As we move inexorably from the culture of national impunity of previous centuries to a culture of international accountability more suited to the modern sensibility, it is worth making four arguments.