Decapitation by Arrest: International Justice and Demobilization in Congo

Commentators have vigorously debated whether international criminal justice mechanisms favor conflict or peace. Other commentators have debated whether decapitation (i.e., assassination of leaders) strengthens or weakens militias, insurgencies, and terrorist groups. Professor Steinberg will discuss his study, which examines how arrests of, and threats to arrest, militia leaders pursuant to international criminal warrants have affected demobilization of Rwandan militias in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Richard Steinberg writes and teaches in the areas of international law and international relations. He currently teaches International Trade Law, International Business Transactions, and Theories of International Law, and directs Law School clinics that work with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and conduct research in conflict and post-conflict zones. He is also Director of the Sanela Diana Jenkins Human Rights Project, and Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning www.ICCforum.com. In addition to his UCLA appointment, Professor Steinberg is currently Visiting Professor of Stanford Global Studies at the WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice, and the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford.