The context for the project is the establishment since 1993 of a number of new international or mixed criminal tribunals, including the ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The DOMAC project focuses on the actual interaction between national and international courts involved in prosecuting individuals in mass atrocity situations.
It explores what impact such international courts have on, inter alia, prosecution policies and rates before national courts, applicable substantive and procedural legal standards, sentencing policies, the award of reparations, and the capacity of domestic criminal justice systems.
It will offer methods to improve coordination of national and international criminal proceedings and better utilisation of national courts through, for example, greater formal and informal avenues of cooperation, interaction and resource sharing between national and international courts.
The project also considers the role of other international courts, such as the International Court of Justice and regional human rights courts, in the response to mass atrocity situations.
Further information about the project is available on the DOMAC project website at http://www.domac.is , or from Alejandro Chehtman at a.chehtman@ucl.ac.uk.