The Hague, 29 September 2015

Both preliminary examinations and exit/legacy strategies are crucial for the accomplishment of goals and mandate of international courts and tribunals, but not yet subjected to systematic discourse. Statutory instruments provide only provide rudimentary guidance. Most elements have been developed incrementally through prosecution practice, judicial action and policies of the registrars. The opening and management of preliminary examinations by the International Criminal Court, and certain types of inaction, have come under scrutiny or critique.

The purpose of this expert seminar is to take stock of policies and practices regarding the peripheries of justice intervention, to review some of the existing approaches, and to identify potential strategies to address underlying tensions and problems. It draws on findings of the project on ‘Post-Conflict Justice and Local Ownership’, carried out by the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, with support of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

The seminar forms part of a new project on ‘Quality Control in Preliminary Examination’ undertaken jointly by the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies and the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (the ‘Quality Control’ Project). The ‘Quality Control’ project will hold a second, related international seminar and produce an anthology on ‘Quality Control in Preliminary Examination’ (to be edited by Professors Carsten Stahn and Morten Bergsmo).