Renaud, Gilles --- "War Crimes and the Culture of Peace by Madam Justice Louise Arbour" [2003] DeakinLawRw 21; (2003) 8(2) Deakin Law Review 397

BOOK REVIEW

War Crimes and the Culture of Peace by Madam Justice Louise Arbour (University of Toronto Press, 2002)

JUSTICE GILLES RENAUD[*]

In the course of presenting the Fifth Annual Lecture in honour of Senator Keith Davey at Victoria University, University of Toronto, Madam Justice Louise Arbour of the Supreme Court of Canada advanced an eloquent plea on behalf of all humanity in favour of the establishment of a culture of peace by means of international criminal accountability. This well honed réquisitoire is now available in book form and is an invaluable reminder of the lessons of Nuremberg, and a timely explanation of the efforts of those nations united by ideals of justice and peace that not only must war crimes be met with organised resistance, but the very act of summoning those charged with atrocities before the Bar of humanity is a step towards the creation of peaceful avenues of conflict resolution.

Madam Justice Arbour, a distinguished scholar and jurist, serving as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, is eminently qualified to guide and to teach those devoted to the ideals of world peace and her lecture makes plain that we need to develop a procedural framework for international criminal law that is adapted to its unique mission and mode of operation. In the final analysis, we must link criminal accountability and peace; we must indict individuals for their personal criminal accountability as a step towards re-establishing the disturbed world peace; we must not merely assign blame and punish (or pardon) and wait for the next atrocities... Indeed, if we are successful in establishing an international criminal law that will punish, deter, and expose these high crimes against humanity, we are successful in promoting re-thinking, reconciliation[1] and peace. (See page 25 in particular).

It is important to stress that it is not suggested by the author that the merging of two disciplines – public international law and criminal law – will be free of difficulties. What is suggested, however, is that to fail so to do is to fail to take available steps to protect future victims, and who amongst us is not susceptible of being the next victim?[2] This process of elaborating an indigenous international penal law, both in terms of substance and matters of process, must not seek simply to identify existing common ground. To be successful, it must reflect prerequisites of due process including the possibility of an acquittal, standards of proof, the right to a defence and to legal assistance, and punishment that is proportionate.[3] Further, Madam Justice Arbour presents a convincing argument that the trial (and the over-arching legal mechanism) must not only promote the values of punishment, deterrence and understanding, it must also be conducted in such a way as to ensure that we remain not only safe, but free.

At one point in my career, as a prosecutor for the Canadian War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Section of the Department of Justice, I was called upon to interview survivors of the Holocaust. It is my greatest hope that the words, the thoughts, and the ideals of Madam Justice Arbour will resonate throughout our many nations and thus, perhaps in the not too distant future, no lawyer will need to ask victims of atrocities to recount their indescribable suffering.

Au demeurant, War Crimes and the Culture of Peace invites us to see the holding of an international trial as a major positive step towards peace and reconciliation, in and of itself, but it also serves to underscore that the process itself must and will speak the language of peace.

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[*] Ontario Court of Justice, Canada.

[1] We are all indebted to the ground-breaking work of South Africa’s efforts in this respect. See Truth and Reconciliation of South Africa Report (1998) 5 volumes and Professor David Dyzenhaus’ masterful book, Judging the Judges, Judging Ourselves: Truth, Reconciliation and the Apartheid Legal Order (1998).

[2] Recall the words of Martin Niemoller reproduced at the entrance of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, Yad Va-shem.

[3] In this respect, refer to Professor Irwin Cottler’s wise counsel in 'Thinking Outside the Box: Foundational Principles for a Counter-Terrorism Law and Policy' in R J Daniels, P MacKlem and K Roach (eds), The Security of Freedom: Essays on Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Bill (2001) 110-129.