Lawyers and Opportunities in International Criminal Courts

Opportunities and what to do with them come for lawyers in different ways in fiction and real life.

Bill ten Boom in Scott Turow’s book, Testimony, is entering a new stage of life at 54. He has left a sterile marriage and resigned his partnership in a large American law firm. Yet he is not ready to sit on the beach or play endless rounds of golf.

With experience as an American prosecutor and extensive defence practice he has a strong background to become a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands.

Though he does not have experience in international criminal law he accepts the invitation to go to Europe to join the Court. It would have been easier to have stayed in America. Had he wanted to continue working as a lawyer there would have been law firms, including his old firm, or businesses or organizations ready to use his skills.

I found it very credible that Boom would venture into war crimes prosecution in his 50’s as I have a law school classmate who, after decades as a prosecutor in Canada, went to Kosovo to prosecute war crimes after the conflict involving Kosovo Albanians and Serbians.

By chance I was able to meet him on his return from Kosovo. He spoke of prosecuting war crimes. As with Boom he was attempting to gain a measure of justice for victims of war crimes.

We are accustomed in Western Canada as lawyers in criminal cases to think there is no physical danger from prosecuting or defending cases. My friend explained it was far different in Kosovo. Each morning before he would start his vehicle he would check to make sure no bomb had been attached to it during the night. In entering compounds guards would use mirrors to check under vehicles for bombs. I admired him but do not believe I could have done his work.

As I read Testimony I thought about Boom as a lawyer. He is an interesting lawyer. He thinks precisely. He is eloquent. He frames questions carefully. He is good at detecting and exposing what a witness does not want to say while being questioned. He is confident in his abilities as a lawyer.  

What is different at the ICC is his freedom in asking questions. When representing clients questions are asked by lawyers with the goal of advancing a client's position. Careers are built on being able to ask the right questions.

In Testimony Boom is able to ask questions as he considers appropriate for he has no further career aspirations in or out of government. 

As indicated above lawyers are normally constrained in questioning as they fear answers adverse to the interests of their clients. You had best have a good idea of the answer to a question before it is asked. To have the freedom to ask questions without worrying about the answers is a freedom seldom afforded lawyers. It would have been a liberating experience for Boom.

I had such an experience when I represented hemophiliacs and blood transfused infected with AIDS at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Canadian Blood System during the mid-1990’s. The instructions of my clients were to ask the questions needed to answer why they were infected. They did not care who made the decisions that resulted in their infections. They simply wanted me to pursue the truth.

I appreciated the opportunity to represent the infected. At the same time it was difficult representing people infected with AIDS when there was no treatment. Client after client died during the Inquiry.

For the fictional Boom and for my friend and myself the chance to pursue justice on a grand scale rather than the individual cases of our regular legal lives was a special opportunity that each of us appreciated.