Scharf, 41, was at ground zero for the historical decision. The legal scholar recently participated in a highly guarded conference in London to train the 39 newly appointed judges of the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) who will preside over Saddam's trial. Scharf, a former State Department lawyer and expert on international law and war crimes, spent a week in October training the Iraqis with another American and three British legal experts. Along with Saddam, the tribunal will also try 11 of the deposed Iraqi dictator's top lieutenants.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) was initially in charge of helping create the Iraqi Special Tribunal. The tribunal's original DOD-drafted statute included only war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The crime of aggression was intentionally omitted. Washington has long opposed using the crime of aggression in the jurisdiction of international tribunals. That is because the U.S. has frequently engaged in actions, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq, that other countries argue constitutes such a crime, explains Scharf. The aggressive-war charge was reconsidered when the Department of Justice took over the IST portfolio in June. Iraqi officials insisted on a catch-all provision for crimes recognized under Iraqi law, including an aggressive-war law dating back to the pre-Saddam 1970s.

Like the Nazis of WWII, Saddam will be charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and making aggressive war, says Scharf. The trial will hold him accountable for invading Kuwait, making war on Iran, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Arabs by damming the rivers that feed the marshes of Southern Iraq, and using poison gas against Iraqi Kurds and SCUD missiles against Israel. Each case has its own controversies. For example, how will the tribunal determine Saddam's motivations against the marsh-dwelling Arabs? The answer, Scharf says, depends on whether the government acted solely to suppress an insurgency or with specific intent to destroy the marsh Arabs as an ethnic group.

Unlike with the Nazis, however, written records of Saddam's orders are scarce. "The trial will turn on testimony rather than written evidence," notes the legal expert. This means the tribunal might have to offer plea bargains to lower-level Baath party officials. Scharf further prepared the Iraqi judges by referencing the mistakes of past tribunals. Citing the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, where the former Yugoslav president turned proceedings into his "stage," Saddam will not be allowed to represent himself.

Another controversy has been the composition of the judicial bench. The tribunal, selected by the U.S.-sponsored Iraqi Provisional Government, consists only of Iraqi judges. With the lack of international participation, "the court risks being perceived as a puppet of the U.S.," says Scharf. This perception can be mitigated, he continues, by the appointment of international law clerks who will see to it that the judges remain unbiased. "This will go further in ensuring the credibility of the IST than one or two international judges would have done."

There is an overwhelming case against Saddam, but the former Iraqi leader will be allowed to pre-sent a full defense. Saddam will most likely cite conflicting evidence about his use of chemical weapons and argue that he was not the aggressor in the various wars he engaged in. Saddam may also try to argue that the "debatable legality" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq indicates that there is no international agreement on the definition of aggressive war.

Scharf has been invited to witness the trial, which will probably take place at a U.S. military base in Iraq sometime early next year. The well-traveled Case professor, the son of former CJN business manager Harry Scharf and his wife Joan, doesn't know if he will attend, as the trial holds very real dangers. In the last several months, one judge's home was riddled with bullets by attackers and another's was blown up. Security for the London conference was tight; a pub the judges frequented was bombed during their training.

For Iraqis and U.S. military forces, the sooner the trial starts, the better. "Every day Saddam is in jail is another day he's fueling the insurgency," says Scharf.