Od istorije do sudnice i nazad: Šta istoriografija može dobiti od presuda za zločine u ratovima u bivšoj Jugoslaviji
From History to Courtroom and Back: What Can Historic Science Obtain from Judgements for Crimes in Wars in Former Yugoslavia

Summary/Abstract: The author attempts to bring trials for international criminal offences closer to historians. The focus of his analysis is on constructivist aspect of court’s proceedings- how one reaches judicial „truth“ rather than whether such a truth objectively corresponds to reality, or what has so far been established as court’s truth about conflicts and crimes in former Yugoslavia. The author carries out this bringing of international and criminal law closer to historic science through explanations of the work, proceedings and judgements of International criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia. He also analyses proceedings in courts of former Yugoslav republics. Author maintains that, in spite of common view that proceedings for international criminal offences in national courts are ethnically biased and abused, such proceedings contribute to establishment of documentation and fact finding on crimes in the region. He furthermore claims that abovementioned proceedings remain unprecedented in world history because they deal with a country’s own citizens and events that took place in it’s own territory on a massive and continuous basis. The basic premise of author’s work is the idea that courts should not deal with history or write it, since that is historians’ task. Even though some judgements of the Hague Tribunal mention the necessity of creating accurate historic records in the course of proceedings, such aspirations are far from overwhelming understanding of purpose of a trial for war and other most serious crimes. Resolutions of United Nations’ Security Council that set up tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda don’t mention determining the truth about conflicts as part of tribunals’ mandates.

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