Abstract:
Genocide studies have recently become an academic phenomenon. However, it is a field that is lacking a criminological perspective. In retrospect, one finds that the field of criminology has also largely neglected to study the crime of genocide. This study attempts to close this gap by adding to the current, yet limited, research regarding procedural justice in international tribunals aimed at prosecuting perpetrators of genocide. This study uses Tom Tyler’s (1990) theory of procedural justice, focusing on three of the primary principles (1) voice, (2) neutrality in decision-making, and (3) trustworthy actions and concern for those without power to analyze the arguments of fair and just tribunals that followed six of the world’s largest genocides. The six tribunals included are the Turkish Military Tribunal that followed the Armenian genocide, the International Military Tribunal of the Nuremberg Trials which followed the Holocaust, the first court that followed the Indonesian genocide, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia which followed the Cambodian genocide, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that followed the ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that followed the Rwandan genocide.
