Testimonial Modes: Witnessing, Evidence, and Testimony before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

At the international level, criminal trials have been characterised as having two important – and sometimes conflicting – adjudicative functions. 3 First, international proceedings are characterised as mechanisms for finding fact and determining criminal responsibility, and so have a similar function to national criminal trials. Second, unlike national criminal trials, international trials are also perceived as having broader ‘transitional’ functions. The adjudicative functions range from establishing ‘historical facts’ of conflict to providing ‘rule of law’ principles for adjudicating conflict. 4 What role, then, does testimony play in establishing the ‘truth’ of international crimes? And how do international criminal trials\ud adjudicate the testimonial proof or disproof of such crimes?