Of unparalleled breadth, depth, and authority, the Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice is a criminal law reform tool tailored to the needs of countries emerging from conflict. Its three volumes present four complete legal codes that national and international actors can use to create, overhaul, update, or plug gaps in the criminal laws in individual post-conflict states. Each volume offers not only substantive legal provisions but also expert commentary that explains wording choices, elaborates on the content of the provisions, and highlights associated considerations and reforms.

This volume, the first to be published (the second and third volumes will appear in spring 2008 and spring 2009), opens with a User’s Guide that explains the development, purpose, and content of the book, and then lays out a comprehensive Model Criminal Code. The code is divided into two parts: a “General Part” that contains general principles of criminal law and penalties, and a “Special Part” that presents a catalog of criminal offenses, including those such as sexual offenses, organized crime, and corruption that are particularly common or destabilizing in post-conflict environments.

The Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice is the culmination of a six-year project spearheaded by the United States Institute of Peace and the Irish Centre for Human Rights, in collaboration with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. More than two hundred experts and practitioners from across the world were involved in the drafting, vetting, and revision of the provisions and their commentaries. This enormous breadth of expertise has allowed the Model Codes to draw on lessons learned in a variety of post-conflict states and from the laws of a remarkable variety of the world’s legal systems and traditions. The result is an indispensable resource for those striving to reestablish the rule of law in societies recently wracked by violent conflict.
—Each copy of this volume contains a CD of the complete text.

About the Editors

Vivienne O’Connor is the Rule of Law project officer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights and codirector of the Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice Project. She lectures widely on international human rights law and criminal law and development.

Colette Rausch is deputy director of the United States Institute of Peace’s Rule of Law Program and codirector of the Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice Project. She directed the Department of Human Rights and the Rule of Law in the OSCE’s mission in Kosovo, and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor as well as on criminal justice projects throughout the Balkans.