After Genocide: Bringing the Devil to Justice - Hardcover

Smith, Adam M.

3.4

5 ratings by Goodreads

9781591026846: After Genocide: Bringing the Devil to Justice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591026849 ISBN 13: 9781591026846

Publisher: Prometheus, 2009

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This comprehensive examination of the complex, politicized world of international criminal justice reviews the serious shortcomings of a system that rarely accomplishes its goal of bringing mass murderers to justice. The author,an international lawyer who has worked at The Hague and in the Balkans and is the son of a Holocaust refugee, focuses on several hot spots, including:� The former Yugoslavia, where a one-billion-dollar investment has spectacularly backfired.� Sierra Leone, where the same wartime factions that the international community tried to dismantle remain, and in some quarters are stronger than ever.� Rwanda, where the post-conflict tribunal was met with dismay by all sectors of society and receives begrudging cooperation from the Rwandan government.� Sudan and Uganda, where the nascent International Criminal Court has inexplicably replicated many of the same problems that plague the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda.Are other options available to provide the good of justice without the potentially devastating side effects? Smith illustrates the viability of a counterintuitive "solution" to dealing with genocide and other mass crimes: to entrust the challenging, potentially destabilizing work of war-crimes justice to the very states affected by the crimes. This well-researched and forcefully argued book is indispensable reading for voters, policymakers, and citizens as well as lawyers, academics, and human rights activists who hope that "never again" can be more than a platitude.

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About the Author:

Adam M. Smith (Bethesda, MD) is an associate at a Washington, DC-based international law firm who has advised presidential candidates, held staff positions with the United Nations and the World Bank, and worked at US embassies in three countries, for the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and for the legal adviser to the State Department. He has published in magazines such as Forbes, American Prospect, and New Republic, and such prestigious journals as Harvard International Law Journal, Fletcher Forum, and Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs. He has been interviewed by NPR, Reuters, AP, CNN, and others and has a coauthored academic text forthcoming by Routledge.

Review:

Adam Smith has written a wise, persuasive, and yet unsettling book, about how noble humanitarian intentions insulated from local culture, community, and politics often cause perverse unintended consequences. Smith writes as an expert practitioner whose life story and professional experience gives him an unassailable platform from which to analyze both the limitations of the International Criminal Court and its antecedents as models for enforcing humanitarian law and any alternative options to the current system. Anyone committed to peace and justice in the world should read this book. --Andrew Natsios ,Former Presidential Envoy to Sudan, Former Administrator of the US Agency for International Development, Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University

An insightful and provocative challenge for supporters of international justice. An important book for anyone interested in human rights and in attaining justice in the wake of atrocities. --Justice Richard J Goldstone, First Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former-Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa

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