Pinochet and the Uncertain Globalization of Criminal Law

Robert C. Power, Widener University - Harrisburg Campus

Abstract

This article examines how the efforts to bring former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte to justice have affected international criminal law. It argues that traditional international law seems largely irrelevant today because the paradigmatic crime of the Pinochet era was torture, which is now addressed primarily through the Torture Convention, and the most appropriate forum is the International Criminal Court (ICC) rather than national courts. The article emphasizes the need to use international tribunals such as the ICC to help protect international criminal prosecutions from the kind of political erosion that left a very mixed record concerning Augusto Pinochet.