The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established through signature of a bilateral treaty between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone in early 2002, making it the third modern ad hoc international criminal tribunal. The tribunal has tried various persons, including former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor, for allegedly bearing greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the latter half of the Sierra Leonean armed conflict. This volume, edited by two legal experts on the Sierra Leone court, presents, for the first time in a single place, a comprehensive collection of all the interlocutory decisions and final trial and appeals judgments issued by the court in the case Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara, and Kanu.
It contains the full text of all substantive judicial decisions, including the majority, separate and concurring as well as dissenting opinions. It additionally provides relevant information for a better understanding of the case, such as the indictments, a list of admitted exhibits and a list of documents on the case file. The book, which is only the first in a series of edited law reports that will capture the entire jurisprudential legacy of the tribunal, fills the gap for a single and authoritative reference source of the tribunal's jurisprudence. It is intended for national and international judges, lawyers, academics, students and other researchers as well as transitional justice practitioners in courts, tribunals and truth commissions as well as anyone seeking an accurate record of the trials conducted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.