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Currently scholarly interest as well as scientific research in the area of international sentencing focuses on a rather narrow normative perspective (for normative approaches see for example Bassett, Schabas or Ohlin), while empirical sentencing research is still in its infancy (Ewald, 365). One could say that this narrow normative discourse, especially if taking into account that “criminal law and criminal policy are based on arbitrary religious and moral beliefs that have no scientific basis, on faulty assumptions about the universality, the immutability or the absolute nature of certain moral standards and rules”, is in need of criminological “factual and scientifically acquired knowledge” based on “truthful, objective, unbiased information about crime, its perpetrators and its victims, information that is free from prejudice and uninfluenced by preconceived ideas and preset positions” (cit. Fattah, 145-147). However, there is no doubt that any holistic research approach to international sentencing needs to include the criminological as well as the criminal law perspective. Therefore, this research focus will provide for an empirically based ‘lessons learned’ regarding the ICTY international sentencing and enforcement practices in all the affected countries of Former Yugoslavia, including Croatia, although conceptually not part of the Balkans, but still undoubtedly involved in its recent violent history (and affected by the ICTY sentencing regime - for its critical review see Derenčinović 2005). This primarily empirical and theoretical criminological ‘Balkans Case Study on international sentencing’ should be relevant not only for the Balkans, but also for other current and future post-conflict regions affected by large-scale violence, while simultaneously providing a solid basis for a much broader interdisciplinary scholarly discussion, including not only international sentencing practice, but also its enforcement.
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