A HUMAN SIDE; Case law prof's dedication to preventing atrocities leads to renown for war crimes tribunal work.(Insight)( Case Western Reserve University law professor Michael Scharf )

Byline: SHANNON MORTLAND

As a Cleveland boy of Jewish heritage, Michael Scharf knew he didn't want to see another atrocity like the Holocaust. Instead of just hoping it didn't happen again, he decided to do something about it.

The Case Western Reserve University law professor now is one of the world's foremost experts on international war crimes tribunals. He has worked on tribunals for Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Iraq, in the International Criminal Court and at The Hague, Netherlands.

"I decided to commit my life to making the phrase, `Never Again,' mean something,'' said Mr. Scharf, 44, who is the director of both the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center and the Cox Center War Crimes Research Office at Case.

But it was somewhat a case of being in the right place at the right time under which he started his involvement in war crimes tribunals and helped resurrect them in 1992. As an attorney adviser for United Nations Affairs in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, he was assigned to work on the Yugoslavia Tribunal, which was the first tribunal since the Nazis were tried at Nuremburg after World War II.