: Should the heritage of justice be considered a “dark heritage”? The questions raised in this new issue of Criminocorpus journal in the context of the project’s 20 th anniversary celebrations in 2023 are in line with its long-standing willingness to promote the creation of a museum of justice in France to showcase the entire judicial world and penal chain; a unifying place that could bring together all institutional memories and would be both scientifically demanding and open to the public. The first virtual groundwork was laid in 2016 as we launched the first online digital museum dedicated to the history of justice. Since then, the editorial policy of Criminocorpus has always remained in line with this perspective . The question of the relationship between historians of justice and the notion of heritage was raised as early as the 1990s, when Jean-Claude Vimont set a few milestones pleading in favor of studying the penal heritage of Haute-Normandie by questioning his own
: Interviewing people who have been tried, convicted, or acquitted for atrocity crimes is an incredibly difficult undertaking, potentially even dangerous. Not so much because these individuals still pose a threat, but because of the risks involved in traveling through countries with non-existent traffic rules, or because of the reputational risks for the researcher involved. In an academic field brimming with high moral expectations (“end impunity, end mass crimes”), who dares to speak to these “monsters” in the first place? Damien Scalia, professor in criminal law at the Université libre de Bruxelles, did just that. The impressive War Criminals on Trial: An Inside View of the International Criminal Justice System is a testament to his ambitious endeavor of speaking to war criminals. Over a period of fifteen years, he conducted interviews with more than sixty individuals prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Across different continents, he spoke to both
: Interviewing people who have been tried, convicted, or acquitted for atrocity crimes is an incredibly difficult undertaking, potentially even dangerous. Not so much because these individuals still pose a threat, but because of the risks involved in traveling through countries with non-existent traffic rules, or because of the reputational risks for the researcher involved. In an academic field brimming with high moral expectations (“end impunity, end mass crimes”), who dares to speak to these “monsters” in the first place? Damien Scalia, professor in criminal law at the Université libre de Bruxelles, did just that. The impressive War Criminals on Trial: An Inside View of the International Criminal Justice System is a testament to his ambitious endeavor of speaking to war criminals. Over a period of fifteen years, he conducted interviews with more than sixty individuals prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Across different continents, he spoke to both