David Tolbert

David Tolbert most recently served as U.N. assistant secretary-general and special advisor to the U.N. Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT). From 2004 through March 2008, he was the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Tolbert’s project aims to fill a significant knowledge gap in terms of what impact international tribunals have on the peace and security of the countries over which they have jurisdiction, and also to assess how well or poorly these courts have performed in terms of meeting the goals of providing a basis for reconciliation and peace in those societies. This study will also look closely at how the relationships between the ICTY and the Bosnian State Court may address the issue of complementarity, which lies at the heart of the ICC Statute. Mr. Tolbert intends to write a guide for practitioners for use by prosecutors and outreach officers and a scholarly assessment that eventually would become part of a book.

Tolbert has extensive experience in international law. Prior to his position as deputy prosecutor, Tolbert was the deputy registrar of the ICTY. He also served as executive director of the American Bar Association's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA CEELI), which manages rule of law development programs throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Prior to his work at ABA CEELI, Tolbert also served at the ICTY as chef de cabinet to the then president and as the senior legal Adviser to the Registry. He has held the position of chief, General Legal Division of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Vienna, Austria and Gaza. He has also taught international law and human rights at the post-graduate level in the United Kingdom and practiced law for many years in the United States. He has published a number of publications regarding international criminal justice, the ICTY and the International Criminal Court (ICC) and represented the ICTY in the discussions leading up to the creation of the ICC.

He received his law degree from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a B.A. from Furman University and an LL.M. from the University of Nottingham.

Publications:

• “United Nations Reform and Supporting the Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Societies,” Harvard Human Rights Journal (Vol.19, No. 29, 2006).
• “The Protection of, and Assistance to, Witnesses at the ICTY,” in The Dynamics of International Criminal Justice: Essays in Honour of Sir Richard May, edited by Hirad Abtahi and Gideon Boas (Brill, 2006).
• "The ICTY: Unforeseen Successes and Foreseeable Shortcomings", Fletcher Forum, (Vol. 26, No. 7, 2002).
• The Procedural Law of the ICTY: Essays in Honor of President McDonald, co-edited with Judge Richard May et al. (Kluwer, 2000).