Ending Impunity: Critical Reflections on the Prosecution of Heads of State

Since 1990, nearly seventy heads of state have been prosecuted for crimes committed while in office. From a legal perspective, the prosecutions have been possible largely due to an erosion of the state immunity principle and the emergence of specialized courts with a mandate to prosecute political figures. Interesting questions arise as to why the legal landscape shifted and whether the trend towards greater numbers of prosecutions has enhanced the rule of law. In their book, Prosecuting Heads of State, editors Ellen L Lutz and Caitlin Reiger shed light on these larger questions. In this review, the author explores Lutz and Reiger’s premise that the increased willingness to prosecute heads of state has been the direct result of activist lawyering, and questions whether the rule of law can truly be enhanced by prosecutions that are inextricably linked to political motivations. The author concludes by cautioning against the over-reliance on judicial accountability mechanisms in transitional justice contexts.