Of efficiency and fairness in the administration of international justice: Can the Residual Mechanism provide adequately reasoned judgments?

This paper discusses some of the structural and procedural innovations that the Security Council introduced in the Statute of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism)[1] and reflects on how some of these developments impact on the exercise of the Mechanism’s judicial function. These innovations constitute a unicum in the field of international criminal justice. At a micro-level, they bring about a shift in the modalities through which the judges of the Mechanism shall exercise the judicial function in respect of their colleagues at the ad hoc Tribunals. At a macro-level, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the kind of judicial institutions that should be devised in future in order to combat impunity in a fair and efficient manner