A History of Political Trials

The Author: John Laughland is an author and journalist who has taught politics and philosophy at universities in Paris and Rome. He has published several books including The Tainted Source: The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea (1997) and Travesty: The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic and the Corruption of International Justice (2007). He has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Spectator, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday and many other British, European, and American newspapers.

Contents: The Trial of Charles I and the Last Judgement – The Trial of Louis XVI and the Terror – War Guilt after World War I – Defeat in the Dock: the Riom Trial – Justice as Purge: Marshal Petain Faces his Accusers – Treachery on Trial: the Case of Vidkun Quisling – Nuremberg: Making War Illegal – Creating Legitimacy: the Trial of Marshal Antonescu – Ethnic Cleansing and National Cleansing in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1947 – People’s Justice in Liberated Hungary – From Mass Execution to Amnesty and Pardon: Postwar Trials in Bulgaria, Finland, and Greece – Politics as Conspiracy: the Tokyo Trials – The Greek Colonels, Emperor Bokassa, and the Argentine Generals: Transitional Justice, 1975-2007 – Revolution Returns: the Trial of Nicolae Ceausescu – A State on Trial: Erich Honecker in Moabit – Jean Kambanda, Convicted without Trial – Kosovo and the New World Order: the Trial of Slobodan Miloševic – Regime Change and the Trial of Saddam Hussein.