and fails to satisfy the demands of distributive justice.
97
Nevertheless, the Agreement limits the jurisdiction of the Extraordinary Chamber to senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea, and to the period 17 April 1975 to 6 January 1979.
6.3 Distributive Justice and the Justice System:
In an ideal world, adequate financial and other resources should be made available for the justice system, so that every case would receive quality justice. But in reality, no society has unlimited resources. Distributive justice then requires that the resources should be allocated in such a way as to maximise or equalise each person's access to justice.
A common response to this has been to propose that international tribunals, which are very expensive, should concentrate on the leadership, and not undertake every case involving an atrocity. The proposed tribunal for Cambodia will be costly - budgets of up to USD $60 million have been suggested. The number of trials is likely to be less than ten, and may not lead to a conviction.14 While such costs may compare favourably with the costs in other international tribunals, nevertheless it is a major allocation of resources for a few cases.
13
Nevertheless, it could be argued that distributive justice would be better achieved by using these funds to improve the capacity of the Cambodian legal system to handle these cases, and the many other cases which come before the courts.
16
For international donors, the tribunal is important for its symbolic role, as a special part of the legal system. Other states,15 international organisations,1 and non-government organisations have contributed considerable funding and effort to the improvement of the Cambodian legal system (capacity building), and these states and organisations are often most supportive of the proposed tribunal.
In Rwanda, an alternative approach has been taken in order to handle the large number of outstanding cases awaiting trial. This has been the adoption of an economical and indigenous reconciliation programme, known as Gacaca.... However, there is no parallel process