The Law Reports of the Special Court for Sierra Leone Volume III: Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor - The Taylor Case

The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established through signature of a bilateral treaty between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone in early 2002, making it the third modern ad hoc international criminal tribunal. The tribunal has tried various persons, including former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor, for allegedly bearing "greatest responsibility" for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the latter half of the Sierra Leonean armed conflict. It completed its work in December 2013. A new Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone, based in Freetown and with offices in The Hague, has been created to carry out its essential “residual” functions.

This volume, which consists of three books and a CD-ROM and is edited by two legal experts on the Sierra Leone court, presents, for the first time in a single place, a comprehensive collection of all the interlocutory decisions and final trial and appeals judgments issued by the court in the case Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor. The Taylor case is the jewel in the crown of the SCSL, as it was the first ever trial and conviction of a former African head of state for crimes committed in a neighboring state. It is also one of a handful of such significant cases in international criminal law.

The Taylor Law Report contains the full text of all substantive judicial decisions, including the majority, separate and concurring as well as dissenting opinions and probably the longest trial judgment ever issued by an international criminal court. It additionally provides relevant information for a better understanding of the case, such as the indictments, a list of admitted exhibits and a list of documents on the case file.

This book set, which is the third in a series of edited law reports that follows volume 1 (on Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara and Kanu – the so-called “AFRC case” published in November 2012) and volume 2 (Prosecutor v. Norman, Fofana and Kondewa – the “CDF case” published in March 2014) seeks to capture the entire jurisprudential legacy of the tribunal, fills the gap for a single and authoritative reference source of the tribunal’s jurisprudence. These law reports, the last volumes of which will be published in 2015 and 2016, are intended for national and international judges, lawyers, academics, students and other researchers as well as transitional justice practitioners in courts, tribunals and truth commissions as well as anyone seeking an accurate record of the trials conducted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.