SETTLING ACCOUNTS - THE DUTY TO PROSECUTE HUMAN-RIGHTS VIOLATIONS OF A PRIOR REGIME

Professor Orentlicher addresses the problem of whether and on what basis a successor government must prosecute the human rights abuses of a prior regime. Contending that the rule of law requires that the very worst crimes be prosecuted, she argues that principles of international law, customary and conventional, impose a duty to investigate and prosecute the most serious violations. Transitional societies serve the obligation to protect human rights best, not when they prosecute every prior violation, nor when they allow all past violators to go unpunished, but when those most responsible for the past system and the most notorious human-rights violators are brought to justice. The Article concludes with a suggestion that human-rights values may be promoted both through further elaboration of international law standards and through vigorous application of present law.