2023 M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award winner
Alan Tieger
Mr. Alan Tieger has been granted the 2023 M.C. Bassiouni Justice Award in recognition of (a) his remarkable service as a prosecutor of core international crimes since 1994, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (‘ICTY’), including cases such as those against Ante Gotovina, Radovan Karadžić, Momčilo Krajišnik, Ratko Mladić, Darko Mrđa, Biljana Plavšić and Duško Tadić; (b) his exemplary professional standards of meticulous, tireless and uncompromising preparation of appearances before judges; (c) his outstanding advocacy skills and courtroom decorum; (d) his loyalty to his office and solidarity with his team members, as expressed, inter alia, in his modesty vis-à-vis mass- and social-media, not seeking to take credit for what are essentially institutional efforts or achievements; and (e) his ability to listen acutely and respectfully, speak softly and in nuanced manners, and to be patient (as expressed also in his training and mentoring of younger colleagues in international criminal justice).
Mr. Tieger is one of two Senior Prosecutors in the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, where he is currently prosecuting the case against Hashim Thaçi et al. A United States (‘US’) lawyer, born to Holocaust survivors, Mr. Tieger served as a federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section of the US Department of Justice from 1987 to 1994, prosecuting cases of racial violence and police brutality nationwide, including the Rodney King case. He was one of six prosecutors chosen by the Department and seconded by the US Government to the ICTY Office of the Prosecutor. Mr. Tieger served the ICTY in the critical period from May 1994 until the end of 1996 and then again from 2001 until the ICTY’s closure in 2017 as Senior Prosecutor, prosecuting some of the most consequential cases in modern international criminal justice. Mr. Tieger holds a BA from the University of California at Los Angeles and a JD from Santa Clara University. He started his career as a Deputy Public Defender representing indigent clients before California State courts in San Jose.
The Award is granted by the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (CILRAP). The 2023 Award Committee consisted of Professor Ling Yan (China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing), Professor Claus Kreβ (Cologne University), Professor William A. Schabas (Middlesex University London), Associate Professor Cheah Wui Ling (National University of Singapore), Mr. Arne Willy Dahl (former Judge Advocate General, Norway), Committee Secretary Devasheesh Bais (CILRAP Fellow and Advocate before the High Court of Indore), and CILRAP Director Morten Bergsmo (Committee Chair). The decision was made by consensus. The Award has been associated with CILRAP’s department FICHL (the Forum for International Criminal and Humanitarian Law) since 2012, but is an Award of CILRAP.
