Judicial proximity: the spaces and places of war crimes trials

Where should war crimes trials take place? Should they be located as close as possible to the sites of the crimes? Does proximity equate with participation and legitimacy? Or does distance allow for objectivity and separation from the social and political contestations that shaped the violence? Confronting these questions, this talk explores how issues of space and place shape judicial outcomes and wider perceptions of justice after violent conflict. Drawing in particular on research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and emerging engagement with the case of the expulsion of the Rohingya from Myanmar, the talk will examine how a study of the legal geographies of purportedly universal jurisdiction crimes reveals the significance of geopolitics and place in the operation of international law.