5 - The Role of National Courts and Mechanisms in Realizing Reparative Justice for International Crimes

Summary

Chapter 5 addresses the potential role of domestic courts and mechanisms in the adjudication and award of reparations for international crimes. It draws from existing studies in the field and examines the role that domestic courts may have in adjudicating claims of reparations for international crimes. It analyzes these questions through case studies of domestic reparations for international crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina where the international criminal tribunal did not have a reparative dimension. It also provides a unique contribution through a timely discussion of the development of universal civil jurisdiction, including the challenges, recent case law from different countries and the United States through the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), as well as recent decisions by US courts limiting its jurisdictions on the ATCA. With this chapter, the book provides a careful survey and analysis of the intricacies of international, national, and administrative mechanisms that are being developed to address reparative justice for international crimes, their unique challenges and some suggestions on how reparative justice for international crimes should develop.