RULING REFLECTS NEW GLOBAL VIEW OF JUSTICE

Rape was once regarded as a byproduct of war and rarely punished. A significant precedent onaccountability was set when a federal jury in Manhattan awarded Bosnian rape victims $745 million.This is a key step in the growing tend toward allowing any country to have jurisdiction over warcrimes that occurred elsewhere. The jury found that former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzicshould pay for the damages to a group of women who were victims of rape, torture and genocide byhis soldiers during the Balkan conflict. It was determined that the 15 plaintiffs were entitled to$265 million in compensatory damages and $480 million in punitive damages for daily tortureinflicted during Karadzic's regime of “ethnic cleansing.”