The President on Trial

Prosecuting Hissene Habre

By: Sharon Weill (Editor), Kim Thuy Seelinger (Editor), Kerstin Bree Carlson (Editor)

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Hardcover | 4 June 2020

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464 Pages

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During the 1980s, thousands of Chadian citizens were detained, tortured, and raped by then-President Hissene Habre's security forces. Decades later, Habre was finally prosecuted for his role in these atrocities not in his own country or in The Hague, but across the African continent, at the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal. By some accounts, Habre's trial and conviction by a specially built court in Dakar is the most significant achievement of global criminal justice in the past decade. Simply creating a court and commencing a trial against a deposed head of state was an extraordinary success. With its 2016 judgment, affirmed on appeal in 2017, the hybrid tribunal in Senegal exceeded expectations, working to deadlines and within its budget, with no murdered witnesses or self-dealing officials.

This book details and contextualizes the Habre trial. It presents the trial and its impact using a novel structure of first-person accounts from 26 direct actors (Part I), accompanied by academic analysis from leading experts on international criminal justice (Part II). Combined, these views present both local and international perspectives through distinct but inter-locking parts: empirical source material from understudied actors both within and outside the court is then contextualized with expert analysis that reflects on the construction and work of the East African Community (EAC) as well as wider themes of international criminal law. Together with an introduction laying out the work and significance of the EAC and its trial of Hissene Habre, the book is a comprehensive consideration of a history-making trial.

Industry Reviews

Ultimately, The President on Trial is a distinctive and timely read on an emblematic case. It captures the current preoccupations and hopes of advocates and practitioners of international criminal justice, at a time marked by a much - discussed African backlash against the International Criminal Court. The book looks back on the history of the Habre trial but remains rooted in the present and turned towards to the future, aiming to explore - and perhaps challenge - assumptions that the trial is doomed to be a precedent with no future. * Charlotte Mohr, International Review of the Red Cross *
The President on Trial is a collection rich in material about the inner workings of the EAC and the place it occupies within the ever-expanding universe of hybrid courts ... this edited volume is the most comprehensive resource available on the Habre trial and a must-read for anyone interested in the real-time operation of hybrid courts. * Valerie Arnould, International Criminal Law Review *
... the book is exceptionally readable and engaging, and offers a 360-degree perspective of the court and trial, giving voice to the victims and their representatives, NGO actors, the prosecution, defence counsel, sexual violence experts and advocates, international actors, administrators, journalists, commentators, academics, and even the accused himself. It is one of those rare works that bridge practice and theory, and it should serve as a model for future analyses of courts and institutions. * Alex Whiting, Deputy Specialist Prosecutor, Kosovo Specialist Chambers, The Hague, Journal of International Criminal Justice *
[The President on Trial] should be required reading for any sociolegal scholar. Not just because of its theoretical value, which is impressive, but because of its powerful reflection of a variety of human experiences as the personal and professional lives of the contributors collide with the hard life of the law. * Alexa Koenig, School of Law, University of California, Law and Society Review *
The President on Trial is a tour-de-force. Edited by three distinguished international law scholars, the forty-three chapters of this volume are undoubtedly the definitive work on the trial of Hissene Habre before the Extraordinary African Chambers. A must read for any serious scholar or practitioner of international criminal justice. * Leila Sadat, Professor of International Criminal Law, Washington University in St Louis and Special Adviser on Crimes Against Humanity to the ICC Prosecutor *
A work of hope for accountability: Together, these remarkable essays will surely serve as the first point of reference on the story of Hissene Habre's terrible crimes and the long path to justice. * Philippe Sands, Author of East West Street, Professor of Law and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals, UCL *
The President on Trial makes an important empirical and methodological addition to the study of international courts. By combining first-person accounts and academic contextualizations, the book provides an encyclopedic account of the construction of a hybrid tribunal to address crimes against humanity committed by Chad's regime as well as a model for how to study new judicial institutions. * Mikael Rask Madsen, Professor and Director of iCourts, Centre of Excellence for International Courts, University of Copenhagen, Denmark *
At a time when we are told that international criminal justice cannot work - this it is too weak, too slow, expensive, too disillusioning - this book stands for the proposition that it can work and has worked. In a novel and innovative study, the three author-editors bring the voices of participants to the fore, and in so doing reveal how it was possible to hold a powerful head of state to account for a multiplicity of heinous crimes. It is at once a moving account of a singularly important trial, and a model of scholarship. * Malcolm M. Feeley, Claire Sanders Clements Dean's Professor Emeritus, Berkeley School of Law26/06/2020. *

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