M. Cherif Bassiouni (1937–2017)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Matwijkiw ◽  
Bronik Matwijkiw
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
World War ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
Global Law

Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni’s death sent shockwaves through the community of legal scholars and practitioners. As an influential figure in the post–World War II era, Bassiouni helped determine the direction of international criminal law and international criminal justice. Bassiouni joined the Editorial Board of The Global Community YILJ in 2001, upon the invitation of its founder and General Editor Giuliana Ziccardi Capaldo. Like the United Nations and the various universities, institutes and societies Bassiouni served, the Yearbook is saddened by the loss of a modern master. His contributions cover doctrine, human rights advocacy that accentuates humanistic values, holistic post-conflict justice principles and projects, together with a life-long campaign for fair (global) law-making and (global) law-enforcement. With the death of Bassiouni, the community witnessed the departure of one of the innovative, inspirational and illustrious masterminds in the fight against impunity and realpolitik and for accountability and the rule of law.

scholarly journals Nazi Crimes in Poland. A Never-Ending Search for Justice

2019 ◽  
pp. 142-160
Author(s):  
Hanna Kuczyńska
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
World War ◽  
National Courts ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Efficient Machine

This article deals with the model for prosecuting Nazi crimes committed in Poland in the light of the model presently used in international criminal law. It tries to answer the question: should the investigation of crimes of international law be handed over to transnational tribunals? Should they be hybrid tribunals involving a national factor, or completely supra-national tribunals like the International Criminal Court? Is it legitimate to transfer jurisdiction over these matters to national courts? The case of unpunished Nazi crimes in Poland may give a partial answer to this question. Certainly, various attempts made after World War II, including procedures brought before Polish courts, have contributed to understanding the function of international criminal law, and finding the answer to the question of the best model for prosecuting crimes of international law. At present, we also have the experience of international criminal tribunals, in particular the ICC, which is an efficient machine for prosecuting crimes of international law. Interesting conclusions can be drawn from its functioning that could improve the work of Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) prosecutors, and shed new light on the considerations regarding the prosecution of Nazi crimes in Poland after World War II.

Dissident Voices in International Criminal Law

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 673-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIKAEL BAAZ
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Moral Agent ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Cold War

Since the end of the Cold War, societies from the former Soviet Union and others throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America have overthrown dictators and other authoritative rulers in the hope of allowing democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. In some cases, the change has been violent and drawn out, while in other cases the change has been quick and (more or less) non-violent. Regardless of whether the change has been violent or not, a crucial question during and after transition is: In what ways should post-authoritarian and/or post-conflict societies deal with their ‘evil’ past in order to ‘enable the state itself to [once again] function as a moral agent’? This question constitutes the very core of what is known as ‘transitional justice’ (TJ).

scholarly journals Prosecutor v. Ayyash et al. (Special Trib. Leb.)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-91
Author(s):  
Michael Lysander Fremuth
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
World War ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
International Character

The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 constitutes a landmark in the development of International Criminal Law (ICL), which gained its first momentum after World War II through the foundation of International Military Tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo. ICL is, however, not confined to these most prominent courts or their statutes providing for definitions of international crimes under their respective jurisdiction; rather, ad hoc international, or internationalized and hybrid special tribunals and criminal chambers also contribute to the development and shape of ICL and reflect its diverse legal and institutional basis. Perceived as another tribunal of “international character,” on August 18, 2020, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) pronounced its judgment on the merits in the Ayyash case. The long-awaited verdict raises the question of the Tribunal's contribution to the further evolution of ICL.

Cecelia Goetz, Woman at Nuremberg

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 607-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Marie Amann
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Life Story ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Department Of Justice ◽  
World War ◽  
Federal Judiciary ◽  
The Many ◽  
Nazi Collaborators ◽  
The U.S

AbstractAmong the creators of international criminal law were the many women who participated in the post-World War II trials of former Nazis and Nazi collaborators. This essay profiles one of those women: Cecelia Goetz, a thirty-year-old American who was the only woman to deliver an opening statement at Nuremberg. The essay not only details how and why Goetz became a prosecutor in the Krupp trial, but also relates a life story marked by many "first women" events, on law review, at the U.S. Department of Justice, and, after Nuremberg, in the federal judiciary.

scholarly journals International Criminal Law's Millennium of Forgotten History

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziv Bohrer
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Community ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Winston Churchill ◽  
International Military Tribunal ◽  
Military Tribunal ◽  
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

At the close of World War II (WWII), Winston Churchill suggested summarily executing the remaining Nazi leadership. Franklin Delano Roosevelt disagreed, insisting on prosecuting them in an international military tribunal. This is considered the “birth” of International Criminal Law (ICL), following a consensus that “[t]he Nazi atrocities gave rise to the idea that some crimes are so grave as to concern the international community as a whole.” A few earlier instances of penal action against violators of the laws of war are acknowledged, but they are dismissed as unrelated to current ICL, because (presumably) these cases are sporadic domestic legal actions that lack a common doctrine.

Defining Genocide

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 149-169
Author(s):  
Melanie O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Key Terms

This article traces the historical development of the term “genocide” and discusses how it evolved from a post-World War II concept into a key component of international criminal law. Dr. O’Brien outlines some of the legal challenges that attend several of the key terms in the generally accepted definition of genocide: ‘destroy’, ‘in part’, ‘groups’, ‘intent’, and so on. She then concludes with an important and politically nuanced point essential to understanding the politics and afterlife of the Rwanda genocide – the weight of the “g” word.

scholarly journals Z badań nad białostockim epizodem w biografii Rafała Lemkina

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-186
Author(s):  
Michał Paweł Stokowski ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
World War ◽  
War Department ◽  
Famous Trials ◽  
Mass Murders

Rafał Lemkin became famous in historiography as the creator of the concept of genocide (genocide). This Polish lawyer of Jewish origin, graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Jan Kazimierz in Lviv and was a pupil of the outstanding Polish criminal lawyer Juliusz Makarewicz. From his student days, he became interested in the lack of legal regulations in the field of criminal liability for committing mass murders on a specific national or ethnic group. An important impulse for the development of this thought for the young Lemkin were the famous trials of the assassins Talaat Pasha, responsible for the slaughter of Armenians during the Great War, and Symon Petlura, charged with the responsibility for pogroms against Jews in Ukraine. Before the outbreak of World War II, Rafał Lemkin, as part of his activity in the Polish section of the International Criminal Law Association, presented at a conference in Madrid in 1933 the first visions of the concept of international criminal jurisdiction of genocide offenses. After the outbreak of World War II and his escape to the United States, he started working in the War Department and as a university lecturer. In 1944, he published his opus magnum – “The Axis Rule in Occupied Europe”, where he formulated and accurately described the concept of genocide as a crime of international law. Lemkin’s idea was quickly appreciated. As early as December 1946, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing genocide as a crime of international law, and two years later it adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. He described his extremely interesting life in the autobiography entitled “Totally Unofficial”, which was translated and published in Poland in 2018. Rafał Lemkin describes many details of his life, but omits the period of his residence in Białystok, where he allegedly passed his matriculation exams in 1919, and his student days at the Jagiellonian University, when he gained the necessary experience and knowledge in legal fields to help him develop the concept of criminalisation of genocide.

The Statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity– Progressive or Regressive?

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 859-878
Author(s):  
Olaoluwa Olusanya
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
World War ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Effective System ◽  
Nuremberg Trials

The global effort to establish an effective system of international justice is at an important phase in its history. After close to 50 years of relative stagnation following the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II, the field of international criminal law has been revitalised. The establishment of the International Criminal Court, the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, “hybrid” or “internationalised” processes such as the Special Court in Sierra Leone, and national criminal justice systems exercising universal jurisdiction, have all lent substance and credibility to the assertion that the most grievous human rights crimes are subject to international scrutiny and legal action.

scholarly journals Reflections on the Symptoms of Humanitarian Principles in the Investigations of International Crimes – A Study on Admissibility of Electronic Evidences in International Trials

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 5520-5532
Author(s):  
Pankaj Umbarkar ◽  
Priyanka R Mohod
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
World War ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Clear Sign ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Phase

The establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal's post-World War II is the clear sign of augmented figure of International Crimes especially. The culmination of flagship tribunals like Yugoslavia and Rwanda opened the new phase for several significant questions such as the maintenance of humanitarian principles throughout the investigation, relevancy of evidence, authenticity, and overall mechanism and its legality too. The chances of an independent investigation mechanism for international crimes may also not be denied. Under such a state of affairs, the issues of collection, preservation, and scrutiny of the evidence of the most serious International Crimes and violations of normative principles set out by International Criminal Law becomes crucial to know to ensure fair and transparent justice. Indeed, the investigation procedure required for such fairness and transparency demands unequivocal maintenance of humanitarian principles throughout the process and legality for the sake of legal authority behind. Consequently, the present paper counts the impact of the investigation mechanism on criminal for international crimes and the existence of the symptoms of humanitarian principles with its legality by analyzing several International Instruments, Judicial Decisions, and other fact findings on the record.

scholarly journals The Protective Principle of Jurisdiction over War Crimes and the Hollow Concept of Universality

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 763-826
Author(s):  
Matthew Garrod
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Far East ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Universal Jurisdiction ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
World War ◽  
War Criminals ◽  
Common Enemy

At the end of World War II, the prosecution by the Allies of thousands of enemy war criminals in Europe and the Far East, and the creation of International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo, are seen by many as a landmark in the development of international criminal law. This development is widely asserted to have given rise to universal jurisdiction over war crimes for the prosecution of perpetrators of gross human rights offences. By using primary research, the purpose of this article is to challenge the perceived emergence of universal jurisdiction and to show that it has been allowed to develop as a myth, a hollow concept. The article seeks to provide an alternative view, by arguing that jurisdiction over war crimes is better explained as an important development of the protective principle, which was exercised collectively by some Allies, for the punishment of a ‘common enemy’.

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