The case of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic who was handed over to an international tribunal recently, "demonstrates that even the highest government officials are vulnerable to international prosecution for human rights crimes," said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch.

In 1989 Manuel Noriega, the dictator of Panama, was seized and convicted of drug trafficking by the United States. The former leader of Chad was under arrest in Senegal until a new government turned him loose last year, but his fate remains in question. Then more recently, Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean strongman, spent considerable time in British custody on a Spanish warrant before being allowed to return home. The trend is that the long arm of the law is growing in strength and challenging national sovereignties.

That trend is quite evident in a landmark decision by the International Court of Justice, the UN's highest judicial tribunal, when it ruled for the first time on June 27, 2001, that its provisional orders were binding on countries and that the United States should have acted to postpone the execution of a German national until his case was considered by the court.

Venturing into dual emotional issues-the death penalty in America and the extent of the United States' willingness to bow to international bodies-the 15-member "World Court" effectively sought to stake a claim of influence over the American legal system. The decision, which came in a 14-to-1 vote in The Hague, will please opponents of capital punishment in Europe and infuriate American opponents of international organizations and treaties that appear to intrude on U.S. sovereignty. President George W. Bush's first official tour of Europe was dominated by disagreements over capital punishment due to the recent execution of Timothy McVeigh, convicted bomber of a federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that killed 168 people.

European politicians have expressed widespread disgust concerning capital punishment in the United States and the deep American suspicion about international authority. The countries of the European Union appear to have more of a willingness to accept the growing trend of more powerful international law, even if it challenges a nation's capacity to maintain its own right of sovereignty.

Sources: New York Times, The Washington Post.