“We’ve always got one foot firmly planted on Dutch soil, we’re not the nomads of international law,” says Michiel Pestman. He’s on the point of relocating to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, but after he arrives he’ll be in constant contact with his firm in the heart of Amsterdam where he and his colleagues represent both sides in notorious human rights abuse cases.

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The Böhler law office is an extremely busy law firm: a journalist is interviewing Göran Sluiter about the preliminary hearings in the run up to the trial of Ratko Mladic at the Yugoslavia tribunal; Liesbeth Zegveld is anxiously awaiting a ruling on compensation for victims of the Srebrenica massacre; Victor Koppe has just returned from Cambodia after visits to Sri Lanka and Rwanda; Michiel Pestman is preparing to move to Cambodia for a case at the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

Numerous cases across the globe
All the lawyers working at the Böhler office in Amsterdam work on major cases involving international law; they usually work in teams and trade expertise. The firm has strong ties to the universities of Amsterdam and Leiden.

It has been quite a while since all four lawyers have been in the Amsterdam office at the same time: “It is busy," says Victor Koppe, halfway out the door on the way to his next appointment. Michiel Pestman adds, “If we get another Somali pirate case we’ll have to expand." And Mr Sluiter says, “International jurisprudence is increasing; the cases are increasing and the number of countries involved is increasing as well."

At the moment he's helping four people from the Democratic Republic of Congo with their asylum applications. They testified at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and want to remain in the Netherlands.

“International jurisprudence is quite fashionable," say the lawyers and compare it to earlier terrorism cases. They all believe that international law and jurisprudence is here to stay, citing the establishment of the permanent ICC as evidence.

Maintaining distance
While the ICC is located in The Hague and the city likes to present itself as the centre of international law, the only law firm specialising in international law cases is located on one of Amsterdam’s historic canals.

According to Mr Pestman, “lawyers specialising in international law are often loners; they hop from tribunal to tribunal and are the nomads of international law". Despite the nomadic lifestyle, the Amsterdam lawyers say their ties with the Netherlands remain deep and strong. Mr Koppe: “The fact that most of the international tribunals are located in the Netherlands is certainly an advantage."

The firm has no plans to move to from Amsterdam to The Hague. Liesbeth Zegveld comments, “If you want to do something positive, you can't be in the centre of everything," and Mr Pestman adds, “Our roots lie in numerous political cases that mainly took place in Amsterdam; environmental activists, squatters, other activists."

Victims and perpetrators
Böhler's clientele changed radically after the firm was involved in cases at the ICC and the Sierra Leone tribunal. Mr Koppe is now representing several Tamil Tigers and a person suspected of committing war crimes in Rwanda. He and Mr Pestman are defending former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea against genocide charges at the Cambodia tribunal. Mr Koppe will replace Mr Pestman in Phnom Penh in a year’s time.

Ms Zegveld doesn't defend perpetrators, but represents victims of genocide and war crimes, including the relatives of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre and victims of the recently convicted Rwandan mass murderer Joseph Mpambara.

It is difficult for the same firm to represent both victims and perpetrators but the lawyers are vigilant: “We can't represent Mladic because we represented the victims of Srebrenica," says Mr Pestman. For the same reason, Mr Sluiter had to stop advising Radovan Karadzic when he joined Böhler. “It can cause conflicts,” he says.

Future
What will they be doing in ten years time? They joke that Mr Pestman will still be in Cambodia, but Ms Zegveld answers seriously, saying that international law must focus more on victims, “They play a tiny part at the ICC but there is still no international court where victims can be heard." She is sure a victims' tribunal will be established within the next ten years.

It's time for the next round of appointments: Mr Koppe heads off to a detention centre; Ms Zegveld hurries off to The Hague; Mr Sluiter answers his phone and immediately launches into a discussion of the scene at the Yugoslavia tribunal when Mladic was ejected from court and Michiel Pestman goes off to try and sell his car before leaving for Phnom Penh.

(jc/hs/imm)