Title

International criminal tribunals and the perception of justice : the effect of the ICTY in Croatia

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

International Journal of Transitional Justice

Publication Date

11-1-2014

Volume

8

Issue

3

First Page

476

Last Page

495

Keywords

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, perceptions of justice, social identity theory, apprehension of war criminals, deterrent effect, Croatia

Abstract

This article examines the impact of international criminal tribunals (ICTs) on the perception of justice. From the legal perspective, the perception of ICTs as just partly stems from their impartiality in dealing with perpetrators of different nationalities/ethnicities. In contrast, social identity theory suggests that the perception of ICTs as just is determined by the group membership, as people tend to pass more lenient judgments on perpetrators from their in-group. In order to resolve this dilemma, we developed an experimental vignette that manipulated international versus national courts, in-group versus out-group perpetrators and a jail sentence versus no jail sentence. The vignette was embedded in a representative survey conducted in Croatia in 2008 and combines with a natural experiment on the Radovan KaradA3/4iA double dagger arrest. The findings reveal biased perceptions of justice, conditional support for the ICTY, the dual impact of deterrent effect and the positive effect of the apprehension of war criminals.

DOI

10.1093/ijtj/iju012

Print ISSN

17527716

E-ISSN

17527724

Publisher Statement

Copyright © The Author (2014)

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

David, R. (2014). International criminal tribunals and the perception of justice: The effect of the ICTY in Croatia. International Journal of Transitional Justice, 8(3), 476-495. doi: 10.1093/ijtj/iju012

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