The trial of Slobodan Milošević got under way on 12 February 2002 with the grand words of the ICTY Prosecutor, ‘Today, as never before, we see international justice in action.’ Four years and one month later, Milošević lay dead in his cell in the United Nations Detention Unit in The Hague, the trial unconcluded and the grand project of international criminal justice apparently in jeopardy.

What had brought international criminal law to this point and what would be the legacy of the Milošević trial? This question is the background and motivation for this book. The prosecution, the court, and Milošević himself, had all played a part in the course this trial had run, for better and for worse. The monstrously broad case pressed by the prosecution and the pathological behaviour and ill health of the accused persistently plagued the trial. Yet the complexities faced by the court and its responses to them have yielded profound lessons that should serve the development of best practice in the conduct of fair and expeditious international criminal trials.

These lessons are not just important for the limited remainder of the ad hoc Tribunals' work. As the newly created flagship of international criminal law – the International Criminal Court – stumbles at the first hurdle of its daunting mandate, it is essential that the Court heeds the lessons learnt by the ad hoc Tribunals, not the least those from the Milošević case, or risk dealing the greatest of blows to the development and continued viability of international criminal justice.