This section provides recommendations for resources to help you familiarize yourself with the core crimes under international law: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. These core crimes, which are within the jurisdiction of the ICC, are set out in Articles 6, 7, 8, and 8 bis of the Rome Statute.
Crimes Against Humanity in the 21st Century
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"In Crimes Against Humanity in the 21st Century, Dr Robert Dubler SC and Matthew Kalyk provide a comprehensive analysis of crimes against humanity in international criminal law. The text tracks the crime from its conceptual origins in antiquity, to its emergence in customary international law at Nuremberg, to the establishment of the 'modern definition' at the Hague with the ICTY, ICTR and ICC, and finally to recent state practice and jurisprudence. The text sets out conclusions about the legal elements of the crime and contends that the raison d'e tre of the crime is located not in the inhumanity of its authors' actions but in the extent to which its authors threaten international peace and security so as to justify international intervention. With a foreword by Geoffrey Robertson QC." - Publisher
Crimes Against Humanity in International Criminal Law
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"In this revised edition, Professor Bassiouni persuasively establishes the legal validity of the Nuremberg Charter and describes the evolution of crimes against humanity from 1945 to the 1998 ICC Statute. The books comprehensive historical and legal analysis starts with the origins of this crime in the international regulation of armed conflicts and covers the Nuremberg, Tokyo and Allied Prosecutions after World War II, and subsequent national prosecutions, as well as the Statutes of the ICTY, ICTR and their jurisprudence, and the Statute of the ICC. The Nuremberg Charter first established crimes against humanity in positive international criminal law, but it raised lingering legal issues. The book examines the ten different international legal formulations which were developed at that time, particularly their overlap with genocide and war crimes, and sorts out the confusion regarding the legal characteristics of this crime. The meticulous and thorough analysis of all relevant legal issues, many of which are not covered elsewhere, includes: principles of legality, criminal responsibility for decision-makers and others, command responsibility, obedience to superior orders and other defences, specific contents and their counterpart in national laws, policy considerations, and the applicability of this crime to non-State actors. The wealth of information and detailed discussion of international and national prosecutions and their failures make a compelling case for more effective enforcement in the future. The author brings to this book his well-known scholarship and unique practical experiences as Chairman of the UN Commission that investigated these crimes in the former Yugoslavia, and as Chairman of the ICCs Drafting Committee in Rome. The breadth and depth of this exhaustively documented book makes it the definitive authority on crimes against humanity." - Publisher
Forging a Convention for Crimes Against Humanity
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"Crimes against humanity were one of the three categories of crimes elaborated in the Nuremberg Charter. However, unlike genocide and war crimes, they were never set out in a comprehensive international convention. This book represents an effort to complete the Nuremberg legacy by filling this gap. It contains a complete text of a proposed convention on crimes against humanity in English and in French, a comprehensive history of the proposed convention, and fifteen original papers written by leading experts on international criminal law. The papers contain reflections on various aspects of crimes against humanity, including gender crimes, universal jurisdiction, the history of codification efforts, the responsibility to protect, ethnic cleansing, peace and justice dilemmas, amnesties and immunities, the jurisprudence of the ad hoc tribunals, the definition of the crime in customary international law, the ICC definition, the architecture of international criminal justice, modes of criminal participation, crimes against humanity and terrorism, and the inter-state enforcement regime." - Publisher
War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
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"This book provides a critical analysis of the definitions of war crimes and crimes against humanity as construed in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.Each crime is discussed from its origins in treaty or customary international law, through developments as a result of the jurisprudence of modern ad hoc or internationalised tribunals, to modifications introduced by the Rome Statute and the Elements of Crimes. The influence of human rights law upon the definition of crimes is discussed, as is the possible impact of State reservations to the underlying treaties which form the basis for the conduct covered by the offences in the Rome Statute. Examples are also given from recent conflicts to aid a 'real life' discussion of the type of conduct over which the International Criminal Court may take jurisdiction.This will be relevant to postgraduates, academics and professionals with an interest in the International Criminal Court and the normative basis for the crimes over which the Court may take jurisdiction." - Publisher
War Crimes and International Criminal Law
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"In this series, separate volumes illustrate different aspects of international criminal law. Each book starts with an introduction to the related subject and contains the most important documents, jurisprudence, and other information related to that subject." - Publisher
War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
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"This book provides a critical analysis of the definitions of war crimes and crimes against humanity as construed in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.Each crime is discussed from its origins in treaty or customary international law, through developments as a result of the jurisprudence of modern ad hoc or internationalised tribunals, to modifications introduced by the Rome Statute and the Elements of Crimes. The influence of human rights law upon the definition of crimes is discussed, as is the possible impact of State reservations to the underlying treaties which form the basis for the conduct covered by the offences in the Rome Statute. Examples are also given from recent conflicts to aid a 'real life' discussion of the type of conduct over which the International Criminal Court may take jurisdiction.This will be relevant to postgraduates, academics and professionals with an interest in the International Criminal Court and the normative basis for the crimes over which the Court may take jurisdiction." - Publisher
The Crime of Aggression
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"The 2010 Kampala Amendments to the Rome Statute empowered the International Criminal Court to prosecute the 'supreme crime' under international law: the crime of aggression. This landmark commentary provides the first analysis of the history, theory, legal interpretation and future of the crime of aggression. As well as explaining the positions of the main actors in the negotiations, the authoritative team of leading scholars and practitioners set out exactly how countries have themselves criminalized illegal war-making in domestic law and practice. In light of the anticipated activation of the Court's jurisdiction over this crime in 2017, this work offers, over two volumes, a comprehensive legal analysis of how to understand the material and mental elements of the crime of aggression as defined at Kampala. Alongside The Travaux Préparatoires of the Crime of Aggression (Cambridge, 2011), this commentary provides the definitive resource for anyone concerned with the illegal use of force." - Publisher
The Travaux Prèparatoires of the Crime of Aggression
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"The Travaux Préparatoires of the Crime of Aggression contains a complete documentation of the fifteen years of negotiations which led up to the historic adoption of the amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court at the 2010 Review Conference in Kampala. Arranged chronologically, it includes all relevant official Chairman's drafts, non-papers, country proposals, meeting reports and summary records, as well as selected unpublished materials and transcripts from the dramatic negotiations at the Review Conference. Three introductory articles, each written from the perspective of an insider, put the Kampala compromise into context and explore the amendments on the crime of aggression, their negotiation history and the intentions of the drafters." - Publisher
Elements of Crimes, which are referred to in Article 9 of the Rome Statute, assist the Court in interpreting and applying core crimes.
Elements of Crimes under International Law
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"Volume II of the International Criminal Law Practitioner Library series focuses on the core categories of international crimes: crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes. The authors present a comprehensive and critical review of the law on the elements of these crimes and their underlying offences, and examine how they interact with the forms of responsibility discussed in Volume I. They also consider the effect of the focus in early ICTY and ICTR proceedings on relatively low-level accused for the development of legal definitions that are sometimes ill-suited for leadership cases, where the accused had little or no physical involvement in the crimes. The book's main focus is the jurisprudence of the ad hoc Tribunals, but the approaches of the ICC and the various hybrid tribunals are also given significant attention. The relevant jurisprudence up to 1 December 2007 has been surveyed, making this a highly useful and timely work." - Publisher