Međunarodno kazneno pravo i povijest – uvod u istraživački projekt
International Criminal Law and History - Introduction to a Research Project

Summary/Abstract: The author’s comprehensive research project, of which this article is but an introductory outline, inquires into the kind of history written out by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In order to investigate the interrelation between criminal law and history, the author faced the following question: what would the history of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and of conflicts in its territory look like if all we had were the judgements of the Hague Tribunal? The author bases his reply on an analysis of first-instance judgements of the Trial Chamber, from which he singles out “historical facts”, and rejects the reflections of the Chamber on legal and procedural issues. As a model case he uses the first ICTY judgement pronounced against Duško Tadić (the trial started on May 7, 1996, and the judgement was pronounced a year later). Although he estimates that the first judgement was not written in an optimal way, the author deems that most preliminarily established historical facts were relevant to historiography, and that, in particular, the judgement offers a universally acceptable notion of the history of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and of socialist Yugoslavia. He is of the opinion that the extensive documentation of ICTY (the “Hague Tribunal”) will have a major influence on the work of future generations of historians. Such a unique and replete archive of historical material is increasingly available to the public and to scientists through ICTY’s online database. The most recent scientific works dealing with the former Yugoslavia also make use of the Tribunal’s judgements and documentation. Scientists will have to pay due attention to the narratives included therein.

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