The purpose of this book is to analyse what lessons can be learnt from the Milošević trial that would improve the fair and expeditious conduct of complex international criminal trials of senior political and military officials and, by doing this, determine best practice for the conduct of such trials. The primary challenge here is striking an appropriate balance between the often competing principles of fairness and expedition. It is apparent from the analysis in this book that the principle of fairness is composed of a myriad of complex rights, obligations, and interests. Perfection in these trials is impossible, and international courts and tribunals should not be expected to achieve this. Defining appropriate benchmarks can be extremely difficult; accomplishing these benchmarks may be even more difficult. The system of modern international criminal law is little more than a decade old. It lacks the infrastructure of domestic criminal law systems, which can rely on hundreds of years of development on which to rest their determination and application of such fundamental issues – issues which have not only legal implications, but also political, sociological, economic and historical ones. It is in this context that international criminal law must be judged, and it is in this context that consideration must be given to its development and future application in complex international criminal trials.

Courts and tribunals applying international criminal law have an obligation to ensure that a trial is fair, and they have an obligation to ensure that it is expeditious.