The Laws of Memory

Abstract

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has generated huge archival holdings. With the ICTY’s impending closure, the archive has become part of broader debates regarding its legacy for the former Yugoslavia. In particular, the memorial function of this archive has now become highly contentious. Ultimately, these concern the relationship between law and collective memory. This article uses the example of the ICTY archive to explore the relationship between law and memory in post-conflict transition. It argues that this ‘legal archive’ functions as a mnemonic system that produces ‘legal memory’ through its juridical, international, and transitional structure. It then considers the competing discourses of how the legal archive remembers or forgets the justice of law and the injustice of war. Ultimately, these discourses figure the archive as a ‘legal memorial’ that fails to produce collective memory. For this reason, I develop an alternative concept of ‘memorial law’ in order to suggest other memorial practices that can sustain legal memory as a living memory, rather than as a dead archive.

Violent re-presentations: Reflections on the ethics of re-presentation in violence research

“…Court records provide researchers with a wealth of data on the crimes they address, their causes, consequences, and actors (Campbell, 2013). The transcripts of cases before international criminal tribunals and courts-martial that deal with charges of sexual violence involve countless testimonies that describe in clarifying and obtrusive detail the sexual violence charged.…”

Law, political economy and war reparation: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…In 1993, The United Nations Security Resolution 827 established the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the ad hoc international criminal court located in The Hague, The Netherlands, to deter the escalation of future crimes. The court placed a vital effort to prosecute massive human rights and humanitarian law violations that include systematic murder, bombardment, sniping, torture, starvation, and retribution as an integral part of the reparation (Campbell, 2012; Hola et al, 2011; Orentlicher, 2010). In addition to the ICTY, the hybrid court Human Rights Chamber (HRC), the BH War Crimes Chamber, The Commission for Real Property Claims of Refugees and Displaced Persons and many U.N. and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were tasked with jus post bellum disseminating the type of policy response consistent with individual rights and market values, penetrating social institutions producing lasting cultural changes in the society.…”