5 Chapeau or Contextual Elements

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mettraux Guénaël
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Core ◽  
Contextual Element ◽  
Contextual Elements ◽  
Between The Acts ◽  
Formed Part

This chapter addresses the chapeau or contextual elements of crimes against humanity. To constitute a crime against humanity, a crime must be committed in the context of and as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population. This contextual element is the core distinguishing feature of crimes against humanity. It highlights their collective character and excludes isolated or random criminal acts. It also distinguishes crimes against humanity from ordinary crimes and other categories of international crimes. As a matter of customary international law, the chapeau element of crimes against humanity may be divided into five sub-elements: (i) there must be an ‘attack’; (ii) the attack must be ‘directed against any civilian population’; (iii) the attack must be ‘widespread or systematic’; (iv) there must be a sufficient link or ‘nexus’ between the acts of the accused and the attack; and (v) the accused must have known that there was a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, and he must have known that his acts formed part of that attack.

scholarly journals Methodological Flaws in the ILC's Study on Exceptions to Immunity Ratione Materiae of State Officials from Foreign Criminal Jurisdiction

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 9-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinmin Shen
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Draft Article ◽  
Criminal Jurisdiction ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Core ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
International Law Commission

In July 2017, the UN International Law Commission (ILC) provisionally adopted Draft Article 7 on exceptions to immunity ratione materiae of state officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction, by a recorded vote of twenty-one votes in favor, eight votes against, and one abstention. In the view of the majority of ILC members, immunity ratione materiae does not apply to the six international crimes listed in the draft article—genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, apartheid, torture, and enforced disappearance—either because of a limitation or because of an exception. The unusual practice of adopting a draft article by recorded vote demonstrated the deep controversy among the ILC members themselves. After all, exceptions to official immunity lie at the core of the project of “Immunity of State Officials from Foreign Criminal Jurisdiction” that was started a decade ago by the ILC. This divisive Draft Article 7 naturally garnered criticism and equally deep controversy among states in discussions on the ILC's work report at UN General Assembly Sixth Committee in late October 2017.

6 Underlying Offences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mettraux Guénaël
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Contextual Element ◽  
War Criminals ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Core Elements

This chapter explores the underlying offences which can constitute crimes against humanity. Crimes against humanity are composed of two core elements: a chapeau or contextual element and an underlying crime committed in and sufficiently linked to the chapeau. The list of underlying crimes that could, in theory, qualify as crimes against humanity is limited in nature and has not significantly evolved since Nuremberg. The Nuremberg Charter provided for six categories of crimes against humanity: murder; extermination; enslavement; deportation; other inhumane acts; and persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds. Control Council Law No. 10, which regulated the subsequent prosecution of Nazi war criminals in occupied Germany, provided for the same six categories and added three other crimes to the list: imprisonment, rape, and torture. The chapter then assesses which crimes against humanity form part of customary international law.

Ch.Four Crimes Against Humanity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werle Gerhard ◽  
Jeßberger Florian
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Contextual Element

This chapter explains crimes against humanity. Crimes against humanity are mass crimes committed against a civilian population. Most serious is the killing of entire groups of people, which is also characteristic of genocide. Crimes against humanity target fundamental, recognised human rights, in particular life, health, freedom, and dignity. These violations of individual rights become international crimes when they are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population. The chapter discusses the history and structure of the crime, as well as protected interests. It then presents the contextual element of this crime, which is an attack on a civilian population as defined in the ICC Statute. After this, individual acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population are next discussed. Lastly, this chapter explores the multiplicity of offenses within this category.

The Diplomacy of Universal Jurisdiction: The Political Branches and the Transnational Prosecution of International Crimes

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Máximo Langer
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Universal Jurisdiction ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals

Under universal jurisdiction, any state in the world may prosecute and try the core international crimes— crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, and war crimes—without any territorial, personal, or national-interest link to the crime in question whenit was committed.The jurisdictional claim is predicated on the atrocious nature of the crime and legally based on treaties or customary international law. Unlike the regime of international criminal tribunals created by the United Nations Security Council and the enforcement regime of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the regime of universal jurisdiction is completely decentralized.

Case Analysis: Crimes Against Humanity After Tadić

2000 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoram Dinstein
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
Case Analysis ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
The Core ◽  
Legal Texts

Crimes against humanity were first defined, for the purposes of the Nuremberg Trial, in 1945. Since then, numerous international legal texts have incorporated the concept, the latest being the Rome Statute of the ICC, 1998. The different texts offer diverse definitions of crimes against humanity, which are traced in the article. Although the precise outlines of the crimes change from one definition to another, it is clear that the core has crystallized as an integral part of customary international law. In the Tadić case, the ICTY had to address several crucial issues relating to crimes against humanity. The judgments on appeal will serve as precedents for the removal of the linkage between crimes against humanity and armed conflict, the exclusion of isolated attacks against civilians and the irrelevance of the personal motives of the defendant.

Two Kinds of Wrong: On the Context Element of Crimes against Humanity

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFAN KIRSCH
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
Foreign Country ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
International Jurisdiction ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
International Military Tribunal ◽  
Military Tribunal ◽  
Context Element

AbstractIt can be shown that – as with the tie between crimes against humanity and the perpetration of other international crimes in the Charter of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg – the context element of the crimes against humanity as set out in the Rome Statute is based on the international law principle of non-interference in the affairs of a foreign country, and only serves to justify ‘international’ jurisdiction in respect of crimes which are typically already punishable pursuant to the lex loci commissii. As a consequence, the feature of a ‘widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population’ is not an aggravating circumstance in respect of the material facts of the case that define the wrong of the act (Unrecht) or the offender's blameworthiness (Schuld), but a jurisdictional element which is a mere precondition for prosecution only.

7 Crimes Against Humanity and Other International Crimes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mettraux Guénaël
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
Community Or ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Core Features

This concluding chapter provides an overview of crimes against humanity. Crimes against humanity are characterized by several core features. First, they are crimes of scale insofar as they must involve and form part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population. Second, similar to genocide but unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity may be committed in times of peace or in times of war. Third, the possibility of being a victim to a crime against humanity does not depend on the victim's nationality or on the victim's membership in any particular community or faction in an armed conflict. Fourth, crimes against humanity are intrinsically serious criminal offences and reflect some of the most important human interests protected by international law. Lastly, crimes against humanity are not subject to any statutory limitations as a matter of international law. The chapter then looks at the differences between crimes against humanity and other international crimes. These include war crimes, genocide, aggression, and terrorism.

2 Crimes Against Humanity Under General International Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mettraux Guénaël
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses crimes against humanity under international law. Crimes against humanity were first introduced at Nuremberg as a means of criminalizing three sorts of criminality that so far had evaded the sanction of international law: atrocities committed outside the context of an armed conflict or independent of it; crimes committed against fellow nationals or nationals of allied nations; and institutionalized discriminatory violence that resulted in individuals being targeted and mistreated by a state because of their identity. Crimes against humanity seek to protect core attributes of all human beings: their dignity; their humanity; and their fundamental human rights. The notion of crimes against humanity reflects the fact that the protection of those interests and the punishment of serious violations of these interests is a matter of universal concern. It also makes it clear that the protection arising from international law does not depend on the nationality of the victim or his membership in a group, nor on his or relationship to the perpetrator. Instead, it is the sheer humanity of the victim that warrants and justifies the criminalization of such acts. And whilst the notion of genocide and crimes against humanity overlap in part in their efforts to protect these core values, unlike genocide, crimes against humanity seek to protect individuals as such, rather than groups of individuals. The chapter then looks at the relationship between crimes against humanity and other international crimes as well as the process of defining crimes against humanity.

s.VIII Boundaries, Ch.33 The Core Crimes of International Criminal Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schwöbel-Patel Christine
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Core ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic

The ‘core’ crimes set out in the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute - the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression - are overwhelmingly assumed to be the most important international crimes. In this chapter, I unsettle the assumption of their inherent importance by revealing and problematising the civilizational, political-economic, and aesthetical biases behind designating these crimes as ‘core’. This is done by shedding light on discontinuities in the history of the core crimes, and unsettling the progress narrative ‘from Nuremberg to Rome’. More specifically, crimes associated with drug control are placed in conversation with the accepted history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to exemplify a systematic editing of the dominant narrative of international criminal law.

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