The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), an international tribunal that is attempting to mete out justice for the extraordinary crimes committed in Cambodia during the murderous reign of the Khmer Rouge, last week gave two top leaders of that regime life sentences. The rulings were expected — not certain, however — and while gratifying raise larger questions about the work of the tribunal, the rulings it has handed down and justice. None of the answers are very comforting.

The ECCC was set up in 2006 with support from the United Nations to prosecute senior officials of the Khmer Rouge government that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, and brought about the deaths of at least 1.6 million people and perhaps as many as 2.2 million — about one-quarter of the country's population — during that interregnum. The tribunal is an odd creation: an ad hoc Cambodian court with international participation, that uses Cambodian and international staff. That hybrid is designed to compensate for the shortcomings in the Cambodian legal infrastructure and to ensure that the trials meet international standards.

As of 2013, the court had spent more than $200 million, and had produced just one verdict in its eight years: the conviction in 2010 of Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known by his alias, Duch, who was commandant of the Tuol-Sleng S-21 prison, one of the most infamous monuments to human barbarity to be found anywhere in the world. More than 14,000 people died in the prison, many of them tortured in horrific ways. Kaing was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder and torture.