Alleged Cambodian torture center leader Duch (Kaing Guek Eav) went on trial this month for the gruesome deaths of an estimated 2 million people killed in the genocide led by Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979.

According to a Washington and Lee University international law expert, such trials are valuable on a number of levels.

But, Mark Drumbl, professor of law and director of the W&L School of Law’s Transnational Law Institute, also cautions a realistic approach.

“We have to realize that war crimes trials and genocide trials are not completely transformative,” said Drumbl, who, along with his W&L law school colleague Thomas H. Speedy Rice, has been involved with 20 W&L law school students who have participated in preparing the defense for Duch over the past three years.

Drumbl says that not only is there value to the trials inside Cambodia but that there are important lessons to be shared with the international community.

“There is a great value in teaching a newer generation about what happened in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and in emphasizing the fact that massive human rights abusers are eventually going to get caught,” Drumbl said.

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