The Figure of the Witness in International Criminal Tribunals

‘The Figure of the Witness in International Criminal Tribunals’ brings welcome attention to the importance of legal archives in accessing the fragmented memories of atrocity. Thorne offers a theoretically innovative and careful analysis of how individual and collective memories are shaped by criminal trials. In doing so, this book offers a crucial contribution to scholarly debates in transitional justice generally and to those concerning Rwanda in particular. - Nicola Palmer, Reader in Criminal Law, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London ‘This book challenges a foundational premise that witnessing and legal procedure are capable of establishing authoritative historical truths. Developing an original conceptual framework for understanding the role and limits of memory in international courts, the book is an essential theoretical intervention which should help others to articulate questions around the form and function of transitional justice.’ - Dr Catherine Turner, Associate Professor in Law, School of Law, Durham University 'Exploring how legal witnesses of human rights violations contribute to memory production in transitional post-conflict societies, Benjamin Thorne’s new book is original and exciting. The book is meticulously researched, offering a conceptually driven and empirically grounded analysis and drawing from an impressive range of scholarly fields. Grappling with concepts such as the ‘grey zone’ of witnessing, legal witnessing as ‘Judgment’ and manipulated memories through to the idea of archives as sites of sensory stimulation, Thorne makes a clever and compelling case. The result - a timely and very welcome addition to transitional justice scholarship and practice.' - Dr Cheryl Lawther Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Queens University Belfast 'Dr Thorne is an adept scholar, capable of spanning fields and disciplines. Here, by locating the witness, the act of witnessing, and legal testimony in their discursive context, he tests the potential, and exposes the limits, of legal process as part of memory production after mass violence. An excellent addition to Transitional Justice studies.' - Andy Aydın-Aitchison Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Edinburgh School of Law 'This richly-informed book develops an original conceptual lens to problematise witnessing and memory in international criminal tribunals. Throughout, it lays bare how the perceived need in international criminal trials for a narrow legal narrative reductively instrumentalises the memories of violence held by victims, particularly at the pre-trial stage. Arguing for a more nuanced view of memory as a dynamic phenomenon, the important contribution of this book to transitional justice lies in how it foregrounds the potential for those fragments of memory found in trial archives to shape a more holistic memory ecology in post-conflict states.' - Prof Padraig McAuliffe, Professor in Transitional Justice, Law School University of Liverpool