Perceptions of Justice in the Khmer Rouge Tribunals: Anthropological Perspectives on the ‘Glocalization’ of International Law.
3
Issued Date
2010
Resource Type
Language
eng
Rights
Mahidol University
Suggested Citation
Oesterheld, Christian (2010). Perceptions of Justice in the Khmer Rouge Tribunals: Anthropological Perspectives on the ‘Glocalization’ of International Law.. Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/40246
Title
Perceptions of Justice in the Khmer Rouge Tribunals: Anthropological Perspectives on the ‘Glocalization’ of International Law.
Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
This paper presents an anthropological analysis of concepts of justice in contemporary Cambodia in the context of the Khmer Rouge Tribunals and
addresses issues regarding the glocalization of international law and universal (or ‘natural’) ethics. Adopting a basically cultural-elativist perspective, legalist notions of ‘international justice’ will be critically discussed and alternative ways of localizing ‘global’ ethics proposed.Based upon an analysis of perceptions of justice in traditional Cambodian society on the one hand, and notions of social justice and the idea of ‘just(ified)’ violence during the Khmer Rouge period on the other hand, this paper surveys the myriad concepts of ‘justice’ as they have been displayed in the course of the Khmer Rouge Trials in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a hybrid tribunal, set up to charge senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea and those ‘most responsible’ for crimes committed during April
1975 and January 1979. The analysis of ‘justice’ concepts in this context is not
limited to legal precepts of retributive and restorative justice, but includes also
the wider aims of the tribunals – reconciliation and strengthening the rule of law in contemporary Cambodia – as well as the persistence of alternative (extralegal)
ideas of justice in the court room, e.g. notions of ‘psychological peace’ and demands for vengeance among the Civil Parties and the Victim’s Unit of the ECCC, or personal justification strategies of Kaing Guek Eav alias ‘Duch’, former director of the political prison S-21 (Tuol Sleng) and currently accused
of crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Convention and crimes under the Cambodian Penal Code of 1956.On the basis of courtroom observations, interviews and a review of the transcripts of the proceedings, this paper suggests that the tribunal has, so far,
failed to foster “Western” notions of the “rule of law” in Cambodia. However, the existence of the ECCC and the wide interest Cambodian society has taken in its work, has stimulated public discourse on ‘justice’ and continues to help reconstituting alternative frameworks of legal consciousness in contemporary Cambodia.
Description
The 4th International Malaysia-Thailand Conference on Southeast Asian Studies: Reexamining Interdependent Relations in South East Asia, Malaysia. March 25-26, 2010