Former International Criminal Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Richard J. Goldstone told a crowd gathered in the Tsai Auditorium last night that practicing international criminal law can feel more like being on the political stage than in a courtroom.

Goldstone, a native of South Africa, described his experience leading the prosecution against war criminals from the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the Hague to illustrate the sometimes-blurred line between politics and international criminal law.

Goldstone detailed the process through which the members of the United Nations Security Council attempted to select the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, which involved the vetoing of eight nominees for the position by council members.

“It’s rather typical of what happens when you mix politics and justice,” he said.

“I hardly need to say to this audience that international criminal law is all about politics,” he added. “It’s more about politics probably than the law.”

Goldstone told those in attendance that he got an “amusing invitation from the Hague” to serve as chief prosecutor for the Criminal Tribunal dealing with the Yugoslavian conflict. Though he initially rebuffed the idea, Goldstone said his opinion was swayed by two factors: the encouragement of his wife and a personal phone call from then-South African president Nelson Mandela, who told him he had already informed UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that Goldstone would accept the position.

“I don’t know of anybody, I’m certainly not one of them, who could refuse any reasonable request made by President Mandela,” he said.

Goldstone also recounted the process through which the International Criminal Court was created in 2002 and lauded the improvement in the United States’ opinion of the court since its conception.

S. Alison Kraemer ’12 said she was particularly interested to hear Goldstone speak because of her experiences learning about the International Criminal Court as part of Model United Nations in high school.

“It was interesting to hear from him about how the court has changed,” she said.

The speech, which was co-sponsored by the International Relations Council and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, was part of a larger event meant to introduce students to the two organizations.

President of the Harvard International Relations Council Kyle A. Fishman ’09 said that the IRC invited Goldstone to speak because of the combination of his personal and academic experience with international law. “I think his speech was really eye-opening, especially the crux of it being about the politics of law, which you don’t really think of,” said Fishman. “You think of law as being objective.”

Goldstone, who is currently serving as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, was also a fellow with the Weatherhead Center in 1989.

—Staff writer Lauren D. Kiel can be reached at lkiel@fas.harvard.edu.