Forced Justice: The Kosovo Specialist Chambers

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC), the court created to adjudicate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo at the turn of the century, is the world’s newest hybrid tribunal. The KSC is classified as a hybrid tribunal because it ostensibly blends aspects of international and domestic law and resources. Upon examination, however, the KSC departs in critical ways from the traditional concept of a hybrid tribunal, representing an internationally dominated court with minimal local involvement. By detailing the history of judicial mechanisms employed to prosecute crimes committed during and in the aftermath of the Kosovo War from 1998-1999, this Article examines how the international community has commandeered Kosovo\u27s justice system, often at the expense of the Kosovar people\u27s wants and needs. This Article argues that the KSC, the international community\u27s latest attempt to prosecute these crimes, represents a new breed of overtly internationalized hybrid tribunal that subverts the goals inherent in the hybrid model of prosecution, namely the ability to provide local ownership over proceedings, facilitate legitimacy and capacity building of judicial personnel and infrastructure, and provide transitional justice measures to post-conflict communities