Truth and Victims' Rights: Towards a Legal Epistemology of International Criminal Justice

Abstract

The author advances the thesis that the now well established international victims' right to know the truth creates an opportunity for an applied epistemology reflection regarding international criminal justice. At the heart of the Project lies the author's argument that this victims' right if taken seriously implies both the right that the international criminal justice system's normative structures or legal frameworks and practices feature a truth-promoting profile, and a duty for the international community to implement the best epistemically-suited set of procedural and evidentiary rules and practices when it engages in the Enterprise of engineering and setting in place international tribunals, panels, chambers, or special courts.