BBC Radio 4's Law in Action was broadcast on Friday, 21 October, 2005 at 1600 BST.
This week, a defiant Saddam Hussein faced the first day of his trial in Baghdad. Saddam and his seven co-defendants are charged with crimes against humanity involving the deaths of 143 Shia men from the village of Dujail, following an assassination attempt there in 1982.
Seeing Saddam in the dock is an extraordinary sight. You can count on the fingers of one hand the number despotic former heads of state who have had to face trial in the country they once ruled.
So, how have nation states traditionally dealt with despotic leaders? Two international legal academics, Ruti Teitel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School, and Dr Gerry Simpson, a reader in law at the London School of Economics, explain.
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