Book contents
- The Violence of Law
- Reviews
- The Violence of Law
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Photographs
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II A Theoretical Framework
- Part III The Emergence of Lawfare
- 3 Bending the Law
- 4 Chambres Spécialisées: From Legalism to Lawfare
- Part IV The Evolution of Lawfare
- Part V The Effects of Lawfare
- Part VI Conclusion
- Index
4 - Chambres Spécialisées: From Legalism to Lawfare
from Part III - The Emergence of Lawfare
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 April 2024
- The Violence of Law
- Reviews
- The Violence of Law
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Photographs
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II A Theoretical Framework
- Part III The Emergence of Lawfare
- 3 Bending the Law
- 4 Chambres Spécialisées: From Legalism to Lawfare
- Part IV The Evolution of Lawfare
- Part V The Effects of Lawfare
- Part VI Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Chapter 4 reconstructs the rise and fall of chambres spécialisées, specialized chambers lodged inside Rwanda’s professional courts of first instance. These newly created tribunals began their work in late 1996 and drew the ire of many international human rights organizations due to the RPF-led government’s disregard for international civil and political rights. Five years later, the chambres spécialisées had tried less than 6 percent of the more than 100,000 detainees who by then were languishing in the country’s overcrowded prisons and cachots (jails). By assessing, for the first time in any depth, the legal performance (in all senses of the word) of the country’s national genocide courts, the chapter sheds light on the dynamics of contention – and material exigencies – against the background of which a blueprint for the gacaca system was drawn up.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Violence of LawThe Formation and Deformation of Gacaca Courts in Rwanda, pp. 142 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024