Law Commons^™

From The Exile Files: An Essay On Trading Justice For Peace, Michael P. Scharf

Faculty Publications

In the spring and summer of 2003, the United States offered exile in lieu of invasion and prosecution to two rogue leaders accused of committing international crimes - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (who declined) and Liberian President Charles Taylor (who accepted). In this essay, the author argues that the offer to Hussein was inappropriate, as it violated international treaties requiring prosecution, but that the offer to Taylor was permissible under international law. The essay examines the costs and benefits of amnesty and exile-for-peace deals and the limited nature of the international duty to prosecute. Where the duty to prosecute does …