The Exception and the Rule. Three Observations in Response to the Report the Impacts of Litigation in Relation to Systematic and Large-Scale Atrocities Committed by the Dutch Military Forces in the ‘Dutch East Indies’ between 1945-1949

This short paper contains three observations in response to the report The Impacts of Litigation in relation to Systematic and Large-Scale Atrocities committed by the Dutch Military Forces in the ‘Dutch East Indies’ between 1945-1949 (Amsterdam, 2019). First, the scope and wider relevance of the Rawagedeh-judgment of the District Court of The Hague (14 September 2011) is discussed. Secondly, the presumed 'exceptional' nature of the unlawful conduct of Dutch military forces during the Indonesian War of Independance is questioned. Thirdly, the explicit connection that the Court of Appeal of the Hague has made in its judgment of 1 October 2019 between the contemporary immunity of war crimes to prescription due to a higher, international law and the suspension of time bars within Dutch civil law in relation to colonial crimes is highlighted and briefly discussed.