The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established through signature of a bilateral treaty between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone in early 2002, making it the third modern ad hoc international criminal tribunal. It has tried various persons, including former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor, for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the latter half of the Sierra Leonean armed conflict. It completed its work in December 2013. A new Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone, based in Freetown and with offices in The Hague, has been created to carry out its essential “residual” functions.

This magnificent set of 4 volumes of Law Reports, which consists of multiple books and various CD-ROMs, and is edited by two legal experts on the Sierra Leone Court, was begun in 2012. Its completion in 2020 means that the gap of a single and authoritative reference source for the tribunal’s jurisprudence has now been filled. The Law Reports are intended for national and international judges, lawyers, academics, students and other researchers as well as transitional justice practitioners in courts, tribunals and truth commissions, and anyone seeking an accurate record of the trials conducted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.



N.B.: This title is a set consisting of a number of prior publications. The hardback set only contains a CD-ROM with the decisions that are reproduced in the book and the trial transcripts.

The e-book versions do not and can only be bought per volume, not as a set.