The Fire Underneath: War Crimes Trials & Reconciling National Security and the Rule of Law

Authors

Dru Brenner-Beck

Publication Date

Spring 2025

First Page

703

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Compounding the difficulty of war crimes prosecutions, much of the evidence available to prove these allegations implicates core national security interests of sovereign States. This article examines how the International Criminal Court (“ICC”), the Guantánamo military commissions, and U.S. courts grapple with eruptions of State sovereignty arising from national security interests, the potential effects of these national security interests on due process and the right to a fair trial, and whether these tribunals can ultimately control the destructive effects of sovereignty on the edifice of the laws of war.

Repository Citation

Dru Brenner-Beck, The Fire Underneath: War Crimes Trials & Reconciling National Security and the Rule of Law, 46 U. Pa. J. Int’l L. 703 (2025).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jil/vol46/iss3/3