| Summary: | The issue of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is characterized by two seemingly very different aspects namely the legal, and the diplomatic (or 'political'). It is often argued that the diplomatic aspect is justifiably subject to deviation from the traditional legal criteria in international relations, such as are the principles of legality, reciprocity, etc. The author argues here that any 'pragmatism' that infringes the principles of legality in international relations, and in the internal political system, short lived, and that in the mid-term it emerges as counter-productive. The author is of the opinion that the Tribunal has resorted to such pragmatist steps, and has consequently been turned into a lobby, whose goal has been to influence the internal political scene of Serbia. By such action, the Tribunal, and primarily its Chief Prosecutor, have stepped out of the domain of legitimate action of a criminal court, and the destructive consequences of such 'relativisation' of the standards of legitimacy are yet to become clear in the further development of international criminal courts.
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