From symbolic surge to closing courts: The transformation of international criminal justice and its professional practices

The creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1993 began a striking proliferation of international criminal tribunals. Now, however, in the wake of this phase of international institution building that followed from the surge of symbolic support for an emergent legal field, international criminal justice is characterized by closing courts and a declining number of professional positions. Developing a framework inspired by structural sociology, this article will analyze the professional practices of the agents that created this field and are now affected by the closure of the courts. These practices constitute a professional response to larger geopolitical transformations in which international criminal justice is no longer politically in vogue. As the article will show, geopolitical structures alone are not wholly definitive for developments of international law: professional agency is actively reshaping the field of international criminal justice.