War crimes: Charles Taylor now, Bashar al-Assad next

Justice has a momentum, and as Liberia's ex-leader is jailed, he's certain to be followed by other despots

International criminal justice grinds slowly, but it can grind exceedingly small. Charles Taylor was first indicted in 2003 for crimes against humanity, in a UN court over which I presided. Then, he strutted the world stage as a head of state. Ghana refused our request to arrest him when he visited, and Nigeria gave him refuge for several years. There was a general expectation that he would escape trial, but the whirligig of time brings its changes and revenges: Taylor was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment, for aiding and abetting 11 kinds of war crimes and crimes against humanity ranging from terrorism, rape and murder of civilians, to recruiting child soldiers and child sex slaves.

The power to punish heads of state for crimes against humanity is a recent discovery: Cromwell's lawyers managed it with Charles I, but their judges were in due course executed for treason. Napoleon we exiled instead to St Helena, and not even FE Smith and Lloyd George could persuade their allies at Versailles to try the Kaiser for invading Belgium.