The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Power Politics, and Resistance in Transitional Justice.

• Date: 01 April 2024
• Author: Hunt, Luke

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Power Politics, and Resistance in Transitional Justice. By Julie Bernath. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2023. Hardcover: 271pp.

History has yet to judge this unprecedented tribunal fully. Set up jointly by the United Nations (UN) and the Cambodian authorities in 2003, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) sought to deliver justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, which was responsible for the deaths of between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people during its four-year rule from 1975 until 1979. But if Julie Bernath's book serves as an academic benchmark (as it should), future historians may not look too kindly at the tribunal.

Transitional justice frames how victims and societies respond to the legacy of serious human rights violations. It also questions the role of law and politics in meting out justice as well as what potential conflicts of interest might arise when a post-war society attempts to piece itself back together. It is through this prism that Bernath explores the informally named Khmer Rouge Tribunal, which began almost three decades after the crimes being prosecuted were committed.

This delay was the result of incessant bickering and politicking between the UN and the ruling elites in Phnom Penh. Both wanted control of the courts. Eventually, the...