Course Description

The Trials before the Trial: International Criminal Law Litigation in its Earliest Stages


This training was conducted by Marie O’Leary, Annie O’Reilly and Haydee Dijkstal who have a wealth of experience at the international courts and tribunals.

The first stages of a case are often those requiring quick movement with little information. Each party and participant plays a unique, but critical, role in preliminary investigations and the initial motions that take place well before the first day of trial. Focusing on preliminary examinations/investigations, arrest/transfer, first appearance, admissibility/jurisdictional challenges, and victim participation, this day will go through the critical phases and key decisions that must be made well before the 'all rise' of opening statements.

Haydee Dijkstal, Marie O'Leary and Annie O'Reilly

Dragan Ivetić received a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Northwestern University in 1996 and went on to the University of Illinois College of Law where he received a J.D. in 1999. He is a licensed lawyer in the State of Illinois, recognized to practice before the ICTY, the MICT and the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He has obtained acquittals or reversals of murder charges in over 300 claimed deaths based on arguments as to Forensic Evidence before the ICTY to date, and located and called as live witnesses witnesses purported purported “murder “murder victims” victims” in representing representing his ICTY clients clients.Initially he practiced as an Associate Attorney at McBreen & Kopko, a multi-state law firm based in Chicago. His practice at that firm included working on cases before the ICTY, as well as serving as outside counsel for General Motors Corporation, and representing both individuals and companies before Illinois Courts such as Dejana Industries, Butler International, Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Health South Inc., and ATLD, Inc. on various matters of litigation ranging from Torts, Product Liability, Mechanical/Construction Defects, Personal Injury, and other forms of litigation.He continued his career as a Member Attorney of Ostojic and Scudder LLC, a Chicago based law firm, which handled cases from around the world on topics that ranged from criminal law to insurance law and tort law. Mr. Ivetić is now a solo-practitioner, who since 2006 has practiced exclusively before the ICTY and the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Mr. Ivetić has been involved in several cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia since 1998. He is currently the Co-Counsel to General Ratko Mladić. Further Dragan Ivetić has been a Co-Counsel for Dušan Fuštar, Sreten Lukić and for Milan Lukić, at the ICTY, and continued to represent these same individuals before the MICT and State Court of BiH. He also recently served as Co-Counsel for Ratko Mladic and is a Vice President of the ADC.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    The Trials before the Trial Video

    • Video of the Trials before the Trial Training - September 2019