Fitness Hearings in War Crimes Cases: From Nuremberg to the Hague

Abstract

This Article examines the Strugar decision and its role in establishing the standards for a defendant’s fitness to stand trial before an in-ternational tribunal. While fitness to stand trial was an issue in three cases at Nuremberg, those cases failed to establish any standards for the international criminal justice community. In contrast, the Strugar standards have been followed in other Trial Chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and at The Special Panels for Serious Crimes at the United Nations Tribunal at East Timor. Therefore, the author argues that Strugar may be viewed as the seminal decision on the issue of fitness to stand trial before an international tribunal.