Book review: The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Assessing their Contribution to International Criminal Law

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Assessing their Contribution to International Criminal Law Simon Meisenberg and Ignaz Stegmiller (eds) *

Books and articles

*. Published by T. M. C. Asser Press, The Hague, 2016.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) were established by a joint agreement between the United Nations and the Kingdom of Cambodia in 2006 to try senior leaders and those most responsible for crimes committed under international and domestic law during the era of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. Since its establishment, the ECCC has heard one case to completion and is currently deliberating in the second. The trial in Case 001, against Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), the former chairman of the S-21 security centre, closed in November 2009, and on 3 February 2012, following appeals by the accused and the co-prosecutors, the Supreme Court Chamber entered convictions against Duch for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, sentencing him to life imprisonment.¹Case 002, initially involving the four former Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, was severed into a series of smaller trials.²Ieng Thirith was found unfit to stand trial, and Ieng Sary died on 14 March 2013.³On 7 August 2014, in Case 002/01, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.⁴Appeals are currently under way in the Supreme Court Chamber while the Trial Chamber deliberates on the evidence heard in Case 002/02.⁵Cases 003 and 004, in which Meas Muth, Ao An and Yim Tith have been named as charged persons, remain in the investigation stage.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Assessing their Contribution to International Criminal Law, edited by Simon Meisenberg and Ignaz Stegmiller, draws together the contributions of academics and practitioners in international criminal law (ICL), many of whom have been directly involved with the ECCC at some point in the life of the Court. The book seeks to provide a positive, but appropriately critical, analysis of the often overlooked and undervalued contributions made by the ECCC to the development of ICL. In doing so, The Extraordinary Chambers in...