International Conference ‘The Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions’

Whilst much has been written about the legalisms that inhere (or not) in prosecuting those responsible for atrocities, very little has been written about the aesthetics atrocity prosecutions encrust into the architecture of courtrooms and the senses they trigger, the optics the defendants suffuse into the trial process, and the expressive value of punishing them.

To address the issue of the senses and sensibilities of atrocity prosecutions, this Conference brought together experts with a variety of backgrounds (law, legal philosophy, history, criminology) working in the fields of international criminal justice and transitional justice in a diverse array of jurisdictions.

As a result, the diversity of the content of different papers was remarkable: while some presentations offered broader theoretical analyses, others focused on particular senses and/or on selected case studies, taking us on a journey through time periods and places, from places of commission of crimes, to courtrooms, places of detention and spaces of memorialisation. The cartography of the contributions goes to show one thing: the issue of prosecuting atrocities is a global one.