The purpose of our contribution is to present the analysis of international criminal institutions and justice better understand what kind of answers are given for mass crimes and if they achieve the goals and finalities they pursue, in taking into account the perspective of tried people (acquitted and condemned). More specifically, we analyse the discourses of around 60 individuals (made by semi-directive interviews conducted by the authors) who were tried by the ICTY and ICTR in order to approach experience and reception of international criminal law.
Before presenting the results of our research, we propose to develop a theoretical approach that would justify the recourse to “penal experience” of people prosecuted in order to analyse the rationality, functioning and impacts of international criminal justice. Our reasoning, based on conceptual landmarks drawn from the social sciences, allows us also to support a specific approach to the legal process as phenomenon. So the article expounds first the necessity to establish a Respondents’ approach.
After this, we propose a presentation and analysis of experienced of tried people at the international level. It appears that the criminal process (i.e. the procedural justice) is a crucial element of the evaluation of the international criminal justice. Moreover, the international justice is violent and is viewed as unfair, politicised and as an outgroup justice. Finally, we analyse the position given to the prosecuted people and its impact on them. So, these empirical results challenge the purposes pursued by international criminal law.