“Even should the heavens fall?”Timing and sequencing of transitional justice, a gap in the Rome Statute? Or, towards a flexible transitional justice scheme for the 21st century.

Source: (2010) LL.M. Thsis. Public International Law. University of Amsterdam.

In this thesis I will make the argument that in order to establish and maintain a sustainable peace and justice it is essential to carefully time and sequence transitional justice mechanisms. I will make the case for a comprehensive justice approach in which transitional justice is embedded in the contextual reality of the situation in question, and transitional justice mechanisms are carefully timed and sequenced according to this reality. Within this framework I will focus on the legal question whether the International Criminal Court will be legally able to comply to such a new approach. I will examine the legal possibilities for the ICC, within the ICC legal framework, to time and even halt ICC activities in ongoing conflict situations for the sake of conflict transformation and the larger peace process. (excerpt)