Karadžić on trial: two procedural problems

With Radovan Karadžić on trial in The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is offered another opportunity to demonstrate it is capable of delivering expeditious and fair justice in high profile and highly complex cases. It is submitted here that the ICTY can only achieve this objective if it succeeds in satisfactorily dealing with two procedural problems. First, the ICTY has tremendous difficulty in finding appropriate response to accused conducting their own defence. Second, the question arises of how to ensure protection of the right of the accused to be presumed innocent and to be tried by an impartial tribunal, in light of the ICTY's legacy over the years, dealing with many of the crimes set out in the Karadžić indictment. This contribution argues that a solution is still far away for the first procedural problem and as regards the second, the ICTY has made an unfortunate start.