Human Rights Watch has described the trial as "an important stage" in efforts to establish responsibility for the use of children in military operations.
Valérie Murat wanted to pursue the legal action to establish responsibility for her father's death, spurring on France's first ever criminal investigation of its kind into the homicide involontaire (manslaughter) of a vineyard worker.
It has been difficult to establish responsibility for the school collapses partly because it is unclear in many cases which level of government is responsible for the original school construction and for ongoing inspections.
The trial, under way since November, was the first court proceeding brought by Russian prosecutors to establish responsibility for the wave of apartment bombings that terrorized many Russians and inflamed public opinion against the Chechen rebellion.
The investigation into the deaths of 156 people and the disappearance of 25 more during the tsunami seeks to establish responsibility for the confusing and contradictory chain of decisions made by government officials and emergency agencies shortly after the earthquake.
The cases show how hard it is to establish responsibility for atrocious crimes, 70 years after they took place.
But David Owen, author of the book Air Accident Investigation, says, "Even if fragments of a missile were retrieved, it would not be enough to establish responsibility because both sides have access to this kind of equipment".
The purpose of the contract is to establish responsibility for the organisation of transport, establish obligations to be met by the carrier and the user, create a unified tariff system to prevent a monopoly, and ensure a transparent railway market is available to all on equal terms.
Following his meeting with Mr Abbott, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "I offered my sincere condolences to Mr Abbott for the loss of 38 Australian lives on MH17 - both Australia and Britain are united in their determination to establish responsibility for this heinous crime.
