Amsterdam/Belgrade - The city of The Hague put itself firmly on the global map in the summer of 2008 as international city of peace and justice.

In July, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the chief public prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, requested the court to issue a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir.

It was - after the indictment of the late Slobodan Milosevic who died before his trial was completed - the first time a warrant for the arrest of an acting head of state was issued.

Just days later, on July 18, the public prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) confirmed the Serb announcement that former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, wanted for genocide and other crimes against humanity, had been arrested in Belgrade.

The psychiatrist by education was caught on a public bus in Belgrade after spending 12 years hiding behind the false name of Dragan David Dabic and an identity of a healer.

Within weeks the world watched how the former Bosnian-Serb leader appeared before the ICTY court in The Hague, clearly aged and thinner than during his last public appearance during the Balkan war in the 1990s.

But he was definitely the same man who played a key role in the violent conflict in South-Eastern Europe.

Though Karadzic was one of ICTY's most wanted, his delivery was not enough to redeem Belgrade from its role of the villain in the violent disintegration of former Yugoslavia.

The Netherlands, the ICTY's host country, said it would never back Serbia's claim for membership in the European Union unless it hands over Karadzic's military chief, Ratko Mladic.

Mladic is held responsible for the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, most of whom were summarily executed after Serb forces overran the town, a UN safe haven supposedly protected by Dutch troops.

In the process he humiliated the Netherlands; the Dutch government was ultimately toppled in 2002 in the aftermath of the Srebrenica siege.

So even if much of EU appears ready to look the other way and allow Serbia closer ties, The Hague - representing both the Dutch government as well as the city of international justice - would not allow it without Mladic behind bars.

The strong Dutch stance, combined with Karadzic's appearance before the ICTY which attracted television audiences world-wide, conveyed the message to the world that, even if it may take years, suspects of war crimes and crimes against humanity will have to expect to be brought to justice in The Hague.

The arrest and transfer of the former Bosnian-Serb leader to The Hague certainly marked a turnaround for the image of international international law, which is all too often considered too powerless.

Only a month earlier, the ICC, the first permanent court to prosecute suspects of war crimes and other serious violations of human rights, had suffered a major blow when it had to grant a provisional release to its first suspect on trial, former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo.

Lubanga, accused of recruiting child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), had been arrested and transferred to The Hague in 2006.

In its statement, the ICC emphasized the release was necessary after the proceedings had been suspended as the prosecution withheld key evidence from the defence.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the highest United Nations court established in 1945 to resolve matters of international law disputed by state governments - successfully solidified its position when it reprimanded both Georgia and Russia in October.

The case was presented to the ICJ by Georgia, which requested the ICJ to indict Russia for what it called "the violation of the territorial integrity of south Ossetia" in the conflict between the two countries over the separatist region.

In November, the same court ruled it had jurisdiction to hear a claim by Croatia that Serbia committed genocide against its population in the 1991-95 War.

With such high-profile cases the international courts did not just demonstrate their increased role in the particular conflicts in 2008. Despite remaining criticisms about the courts' effectiveness in individual cases, they also helped to send the signal that in The Hague no country is ablove the law.