Does Cambodia’s Amnesty Have To Be Honored?

This report suggests that this question will soon be considered by the awkwardly named Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. The question arises in one of the ECCC’s first cases where the defendant was allegedly given a royal pardon from an earlier domestic conviction for genocide.



On the face of it, this doesn’t seem a hard question since the ECCC is authorized to punish individuals for violations of the Convention Against Genocide, which was probably not the source of law for the earliest conviction. Still, the ECCC is operating under Cambodian, not international, law and this question might be governed by a Cambodian law rule concerning the scope and effect of a royal pardon. A tricky question worth keeping an eye on.