Dictum of the day, or on the banality of evil redux

The Court took all these factors into consideration when meting out the sentence, noting that it was completely ordinary and normal for a human being to have no ethnic bias, to root for a football club, to love children and to be a devout believer. This Panel, however, notes that what is most difficult to understand is the fact that in Srebrenica in July 1995, once again, numerous and most heinous crimes were committed by ordinary people with average intellect and moral values.

Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Radomir Vuković and Zoran Tomić, Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, First Instance Verdict, X-KR-06/180, 22 April 2010, para. 617.

Dictum of the day, or on the banality of evil

Aside from the matters to which I am about to turn the Claimant was apparently a man of entirely good character (...) I start by noting that it was common ground that the Claimant had been convicted of very serious criminal activity which involved active assistance in the imposition of unimaginable and indescribable suffering on the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica (...)

Radislav Krstić v. Secretary of State for Justice, England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions, Case No: CO/4878/2010, 13 August 2010, para. 2 and 15.