Legitimation und Schuld. Eine narrativtheoretische Betrachtung des Urteils gegen Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo

The thesis deals with the verdict of Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo and asks how the chamber constructed Bemba's guilt in its verdict. To answer the question, based on publications of narrative research, a narrative theory called Narrative Network Theory (NNT) and a corresponding methodological procedure were developed. In total, ten dimensions of the construction of guilt can be identified: First, the telling of a story by the chamber about its own actions within the judgment combined with a clearly comprehensible structure of the narrative. Second, the characterization of the ideal witness and at the same time the characterization of individual witnesses as (in)credible. Third, the characterization of Bemba as an almost omnipotent leader of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC). Fourth, the characterization of the soldiers of the MLC as active and the characterization of the victims as passive actors in the conflict. Fifth, the recurring self-legitimization of the chamber and its actions, and thus the legitimization of the court. Sixth, the development of a narrative web, that is, the external logic of the judgment. Seventh, the multiperspectivity in the construction of Bemba's guilt. Eighth, the self-characterization of the chamber as just, fair, deliberative, and impartial, legally embedded in its decisions and independent at the same time. Ninth, the self-classification of the Chamber's work as standing on the good side in the metanarratives about the fight 'good versus evil' or 'right versus wrong', accompanied by the legitimization of its own work. Tenth, the repetitive addressing of different publics in the judgment.