International justice is the subject of numerous controversies, both conceptual and procedural, and the war in Ukraine has made those controversies even more pronounced, and at the same time more conceptually nuanced. The nature, participants and interests involved in the war are the subject of a growing amount of scholarship while the war unfolds. Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has been indicted for war crimes over the relocation of Ukrainian children into Russia early into the conflict, and this indictment has added a new edge to the geopolitical confrontation that is associated with the conflict, while complicating any diplomatic negotiations with Russia. The war poses questions for the role and effectiveness of the permanent International War Crimes Court in The Hague and its ability to learn from the experiences of the two ad-hoc international tribunals for war crimes, that for Yugoslavia (ICTR), and that for (Rwanda). Klaus Bachmann is one of the foremost experts on transitional justice and war crimes, as well as on the policies, history and security of Ukraine. In this lecture he will offer an interpretation of the potential and principles of international criminal justice to address the war in Ukraine.

Klaus Bachmann is Professor of Social Sciences at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Poland. Before, he served as Chair Holder of the Center for German and European Studies and Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences both at the University of Wrocław, Poland. His research interest focusses on Transitional Justice, International Criminal Law, and Modern European History, including colonialism in Africa. He co-authored the first complete analysis of the functioning of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Among his most recent publications are When Justice Meets Politics. Independence and Autonomy of ad hoc international criminal tribunals (2014), which he co-authored with P. Lambertz and T. Sparrow-Botero, The UN International Criminal Tribunals. Transition without Justice? (2015), which he wrote with A. Fatić and The Puzzle of Transitional Justice in Ukraine (2017), which he co-authored with I. Lyubashenko.