Posted by: Erna Paris - Author of The Sun Climbs Slow

George Bernard Shaw once told a friend that he was sorry to have written him such a long letter, but he just didn’t have time to write a short one. I remembered that great line when I learned that my first speaking engagement about my new book, The Sun Climbs Slow: Justice in the Age of American Empire, would be limited to fifteen minutes. I wondered how I’d be able to do justice to a book I’d worked on for more than four years in such a short time. It worked out well, I believe, but like GBS, I’m looking forward to the easier, longer variety.

I found this a highly interesting book to research and write because it’s a story that is little known: the creation of courts of international criminal justice to try the perpetrators of the worst crimes, and the take-no-hostages politics that swirl around them. If these tribunals are successful, especially the new permanent International Criminal Court in The Hague, old-style impunity for leaders who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity will at last come under threat—for the first time in history.

In retrospect, meeting some of the people who have faciliated this unprecedented development in world affairs, against the greatest of odds, was probably the highlight of my research. I was interested to discover that many of the judges of the International Criminal Court are themselves from countries where major human rights abuses have occurred. It was this primary experience that inspired them to work for justice. I’ll write more about some of these exceptional people in another post. Stay tuned.