Cato Institute
Policy Analysis
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dence as we wished . . . they could not take away a lot of
limitations, such as the fact that there was no legal in-
strument to compel a witness to come to The Hague."  Wladi-
miroff added that that limitation caused an imbalance in the
presentations of the prosecution and defense cases because
"those people who were victims of Dusko Tadic were eager to
have him tried and convicted and therefore they were quite
pleased to step forward and tell their story. . . . But no
one who was involved with him would step forward and witness
for the simple reason that they will point at [i.e., incrim-
inate] themselves."  That imbalance was compounded by the
fact that "there were so many things that we could not
investigate. . . . Too little money was designated to be
used for funding of the defense.  Much more was designated
to be used for the prosecution."56
All of that led Nick Kostich, an American defense
attorney for Tadic, to conclude that the Yugoslavia tribu-
nal--the precursor of the ICC--did not accord his client the
right to conduct a fair defense.  Tadic "is not being given
the right to confront his accusers," and "the defense has
not been presented with the names of witnesses," he ex-
plained in 1995.  "My most vicious, my most heinous client
[in the United States] has more rights under the U.S. Con-
stitution," he added.57  The clear implication of Kostich's
assessment is that Americans brought before a Yugoslavia
tribunal-type court--like the proposed ICC--will have fewer
rights than under the U.S. Constitution.
Constitutional Barriers
In 1803 Thomas Jefferson defended the supremacy of the
U.S. Constitution over treaties when he wrote, "Our particu-
lar security is in possession of a written Constitution.
Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.  I say the
same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of
the treaty making power as boundless.  If it is, then we
have no Constitution."58  Jefferson's analysis tends to be
supported by the case law, which says that the U.S. federal
government cannot enter into treaties that are incompatible
with the U.S. Constitution.59  Doe v. Braden (1853), for
example, asserts that U.S. courts have a legal "right to
annul or disregard" the provisions of a treaty if "they
violate the Constitution of the United States,"60 and the
Cherokee Tobacco (1871) decision declares that "a treaty
cannot change the Constitution or be held valid if it be in