'It sends a message': Liberian opinion leaders' responses to the trial of Charles Taylor

This article investigates the potential impact of an international criminal trial on a post-conflict society. It assesses the claims of legal expressivism, which conceptualizes criminal justice as a message sending mechanism that can enunciate societal condemnation of atrocities, establish an authoritative historical record, and strengthen respect for the rule of law. This article examines the trial of Charles Taylor before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. First, the discursive messaging by the prosecution and defence is analysed. Second, this article conducts an empirical enquiry into the reception of these messages by opinion leaders in Liberia. Departing from the literature on expressivism, it will be shown that the trial proceedings, not only the verdict and sentence, have expressivist potential. In the second part of the enquiry, an attentive elite audience in Monrovia was found to hold complex views. The Taylor trial did not stigmatize particular behaviour, but there is some evidence of so-called ‘historical truths’ being validated, despite the Court’s doubtful perceived legitimacy. Many respondents discerned a deterrent effect of the trial, with youth leaders, in particular, using terms exactly consonant with expressivist theory. For them, the trial ‘sends a message’ or ‘tells future leaders’ that one cannot wage aggressive war or commit human rights violations without being called to account. This suggests that trial proceedings can indeed function as a mechanism of deterrence by sending messages.