Saturday, September 10, 2016

Tromp: Prosecuting Slobodan Miloševic: The Unfinished Trial

Nevenka Tromp (Univ. of Amsterdam - East European Studies) has published Prosecuting Slobodan Miloševic: The Unfinished Trial (Routledge 2016). Here's the abstract:
With the premature death of Miloševic in March 2006 his trial was left unfinished. Although the traditional objectives of criminal law, such as retribution, justice for victims, and deterrence, were not achieved, the Miloševic trial archive is a significant historical resource for researchers from various fields. This book extracts details from the collection of documentary and transcript evidence that makes up the trial record – sources which would be almost impossible to extricate without an insider’s guiding hand – to allow readers to trace the threads of several historical narratives. The value of this methodology is particularly evident in the Miloševic case as, acting as his own defence counsel, he responded to, and interacted with, almost all witnesses and evidence presented against him. By providing snapshots of the behaviour displayed by Miloševic in court while conducting his defence, in combination with passages of carefully selected evidence from an immense archive familiar to few scholars, this volume reveals how these trial records, and trail records in general, are a truly invaluable historical source. The book underlines the premise that any record of a mass atrocities trial, whether finished or unfinished, establishes a record of past events, contributes to interpretations of a historical period and influences the shaping of collective memory.