Justice, Interrupted: A Death at the Khmer Rouge Trials and Reasons for Optimism
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously stated that the “arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” In regards to atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, the path to justice for one perpetrator recently came to an abrupt end with the death of Nuon Chea, the most senior Khmer Rouge leader put on trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (“ECCC”) in August 2019. For those encountering this fact for the first time, it can be surprising that forty years after the invasion that toppled the Khmer Rouge, the justice process had not yet concluded. Nuon Chea died after conviction at trial for crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes, but before the appeals process in that case—the second against him—could be completed. The story, briefly outlined here, of how trials against Khmer Rouge perpetrators were not yet complete in 2019 is a cautionary one about the need for states and the international community to move as swiftly as possible to attain justice for atrocities. However, the unsatisfying conclusion in regards to Nuon Chea occurs at a time when international accountability mechanisms have made new, creative strides towards shortening the justice arc, giving hope that such occurrences will be fewer and farther between in the future. Those who claim that the golden age for international criminal justice is past, must also acknowledge the advantages of these novel developments.
Recommended Citation: J. Andrew Boyle, Justice, Interrupted: A Death at the Khmer Rouge Trials and Reasons for Optimism, 43 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1089 (2020).