ABSTRACT
Introduction One should not, and we argue effectively cannot, examine the recent development of international criminal justice purely from a Western or North world lens. As noted in Chapters 2 and 3, the institutional and process developments in relation to international criminal justice since the war crimes tribunals after World War II have been driven by the political and economic priorities of developed hegemonic states, against the more recent conflicts and civil unrest in the developing world. However, this skewed motivation behind ICJ might be viewed as a logical if unfortunate consequence of the way in which global socio-economic development has been a selective (and some might say discriminatory) reflection of social and global order priorities of the modernised age. 1 As we argued in Chapters 6 and 7, if there is a nexus between ICJ and global governance, and the latter is a hegemonic project, then socio-economic development will also be captured within that selective governance agenda. 2 The nature of selective governance will mean that some cultures benefit, and some are forced into transition for the purposes of that benefit. One-size-fits-all socio-economic development is in fact modelled to market the advantages of capitalism to a world which is largely not organised or ordered in a political, social or cultural context compatible with the historical foundations of this economic model. 3 In such a context, the question is – development at what cost? In this chapter, we will explore the costs of cultural destruction, arguably almost on the scale of genocide, in the name of modernisation.
