Abstract
A transcript of an interview with Gregory Townsend by Leigh Swigart. The interview took place on June 1, 2017 at The Hague, Netherlands, and the transcript, which is represented here, has been reviewed and edited from the original audio version. During the interview, Townsend reminisces on his early career as a Deputy Public Defender in Los Angeles; how a Fletcher school classmate facilitated his career shift to the ICTR; his perspective on the testimony of famed ICTR rape survivor and witness T.A., and the low level of performance by defense counsel during the same proceedings. Townsend also discusses circumstances that led to his work on the ICTR Kayishema/Ruzindana judgment; investigation difficulties in the early life of the ICTR; building trust with witnesses; the interactions between common law and civil law systems in ICTR proceedings; contrast betwen ICTR and UNMIK proceedings; limitations of monolingual judges and lawyers at the ICTR and his emphasis on the importance of speaking multiple languages in such an environment; contrast between nature of evidence at Ad Hoc Tribunals andbig data at Special Tribunal for Lebanon; the impact of technology on the investigatory phase of the STL Hariri Case, and reflections on the state of international criminal justice as of 2017.