Trials for International Crimes in Asia

The issue of international crimes is highly topical in Asia, with still-resonant claims against the Japanese for war crimes, and deep schisms resulting from crimes in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and East Timor. Over the years, the region has hosted a succession of tribunals, from those held in Manila, Singapore and Tokyo after the Asia-Pacific War to those currently running in Dhaka and Phnom Penh. This book draws on extensive new research and offers the first comprehensive legal appraisal of the Asian trials. As well as the famous tribunals, it also considers lesser-known examples, such as the Dutch and Soviet trials of the Japanese, the Cambodian trial of the Khmer Rouge, and the Indonesian trials of their own military personnel. It focuses on their approach to the elements of international crimes, and their contribution to general theories of liability. In the process, this book challenges some orthodoxies about the development of international criminal law.

• The first comprehensive legal appraisal of trials for international crimes in Asia by leading specialists in the field • Draws on extensive hitherto unpublished archival research from around the world, including Russia, China, India, the Netherlands, the United States, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand • Examines the trials from a variety of perspectives, focusing on the context in which they were held, trial planning, framing of the charges, prosecutorial and defence arguments, conduct of the trials, judgements and sentences, and the trials' legacy in international criminal law