JAK LUDOBÓJSTWO ZOSTAŁO UZNANE ZA ZBRODNIĘ – DZIEDZICTWO RAFAŁA LEMKINA

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam MCFARLAND ◽  
Katarzyna HAMER

Raphael Lemkin is hardly known to a Polish audiences. One of the most honored Poles of theXX century, forever revered in the history of human rights, nominated six times for the Nobel PeacePrize, Lemkin sacrificed his entire life to make a real change in the world: the creation of the term“genocide” and making it a crime under international law. How long was his struggle to establishwhat we now take as obvious, what we now take for granted?This paper offers his short biography, showing his long road from realizing that the killing oneperson was considered a murder but that under international law in 1930s the killing a million wasnot. Through coining the term “genocide” in 1944, he helped make genocide a criminal charge atthe Nuremburg war crimes trials of Nazi leaders in late 1945, although there the crime of genocidedid not cover killing whole tribes when committed on inhabitants of the same country nor when notduring war. He next lobbied the new United Nations to adopt a resolution that genocide is a crimeunder international law, which it adopted on 11 December, 1946. Although not a U.N. delegate – hewas “Totally Unofficial,” the title of his autobiography – Lemkin then led the U.N. in creating theConvention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted 9 December, 1948.Until his death in 1958, Lemkin lobbied tirelessly to get other U.N. states to ratify the Convention.His legacy is that, as of 2015, 147 U.N. states have done so, 46 still on hold. His tomb inscriptionreads simply, “Dr. Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959), Father of the Genocide Convention”. Without himthe world as we know it, would not be possible.

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Sluiter

AbstractThis article deals with the question of possible effect of the law of international criminal procedure for domestic war crimes trials. With the increasing number of national prosecutions for war crimes this question will gain in relevance.The article starts with an exploration of the origin and development of the law of international criminal procedure, to reach the conclusion that because of the lack of a strong foundation it is difficult to discern firmly established rules in this field. Next, two areas are examined where the law of international criminal procedure is capable of producing effect for national trials: human rights and rules that have developed in the specific context of war crimes prosecutions.Whether rules of international criminal procedure are formally effective in the domestic legal order remains to be seen. There is no clear obligation under international law to do so. Furthermore, the law of international criminal procedure may be difficult to harmonise with domestic inquisitorial systems.In spite of these difficulties, the article concludes that national courts will increasingly face similar procedural problems in complex war crimes trials as international criminal tribunals and will be happy to learn from their experiences.


Author(s):  
Orford Anne

This chapter re-examines the history of free trade and its relationship to international law. It locates contemporary trade agreements within a larger story about the relation between the state, the market, and the social; explores why it is useful to place current trade agreements within a longer historical trajectory; offers a brief narrative of how the concept of free trade has moved across a two-hundred-year period since the late eighteenth century; and concludes that concepts such as free trade (and related concepts such as discrimination, market distortion, protection, and subsidies) are the product of political struggles over particular ways of understanding the world, justifying entitlements to resources, explaining why some people should profit from the labour of others, and legitimizing the exercise of power.


Author(s):  
C. H. Alexandrowicz

In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the need to write a global history of law of nations that disengages from parochial national and regional histories. It is hoped that these developments will bring centre-stage the work of Charles Henry Alexandrowicz (1902–75), a scholar who was among the first to conceptualize the history of international law as that of intersecting histories of different regions of the world. Alexandrowicz was aware that, while the idea of writing a global history of law of nations is liberating, there is no guarantee that it will not become the handmaiden of contemporary and future imperial projects. What were needed were critical global histories that provincialize established Eurocentric historiographies and read them alongside other regional histories. This book aims to make Alexandrowicz’s writings more widely available and read. The Introduction to this book sums up the context, issues, problems, and questions that engaged Alexandrowicz, as well as some of his central theses. His writings are a gold mine waiting to be explored. Alexandrowicz contributed to the effort of promoting the idea of international rule of law by rejecting a Eurocentric history and theory of international law.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Author(s):  
Naoki Sakai

Both Asia and Latin America are regarded as areas in the disciplines of area studies. What must be called into question is the assumption that these areas are primarily geographic designations. This paper investigates in what sense the “area” of area studies connotes a geographic location and how it is differentiated from other terms such as territory. It discusses the history of the modern international world in which the world has been bifurcated into the West, where a system of international law has been applied, and the Rest, where residents have not been protected by international law. Both Asia and Latin America are designations that preserve the legacy of modern colonialism: both are geographic indices for the regions and populations to be “discovered” and posited from the viewpoint of the West. In this respect, Asia and Latin America as “areas” still preserve the microphysics of modern colonial power in their geopolitical referentiality.


2020 ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
N.V. Lobko

History of World War I that due to its global consequences started a new stage of development of European civilization still draws attention of many researchers. One of the most interesting topics for researchers is the topic of war imprisonment during the World War I. Stay of prisoners of war in the territory of Ukraine is a scantily studied issue. The objects of this study are prisoners of war who were in Lebedyn district of Kharkiv province during the World War I (1914–1918). The subject of the research is the legal status of prisoners of war, the protection of their rights and the observance of their duties. The author analyzed norms of international law and Russian legislation for regulation conditions of war imprisonment during the period of war. Using materials of Lebedyn District of Kharkiv Province, being deposited in the archives of Sumy Region, the author examines the legal status of prisoners of war, the protection of their rights and the observance of their duties. The position of prisoners of war during the World War I on Ukrainian lands as part of the Russian Empire was determined by the norms of international law and Russian legislation for regulation conditions of war imprisonment during the period of war. Using the archival sources kept in funds of the State Archives of Sumy Region, it was found that the rights of prisoners of war were generally ensured on the territory of the Lebedyn District of Kharkiv Province. However, there were not a few cases when Austrian and German prisoners suffered from hunger, domestic inconvenience and abuse by employers. There were also repeated violations of their duties by prisoners of war. The most common violations were refusal to work, leaving the workplace.


2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Upendra D. Acharya

After providing a brief background on international law, the history of the right to development is discussed. International law, as it exists today, has been abused by developed nations in their position of power over underdeveloped nations. The right to development, first formalized by the United Nations in 1986 with the Declaration on the Right to Development, was meant to give people of the developing world a right to development. However, the right to development has been supplanted by the concept of sustainable development, as orchestrated by the developed nations. It was hopeful that organizations like the World Trade Organization would implement the right to development through trade; however, these organizations have become merely a tool for the developed nations and associated corporations to continue their dominance over developing nations. Environmental concerns in recent times have shifted the international focus from the right to development to sustainable development, and the right to development has been overlooked. A legal right to development must be recognized before sustainable development can be applied as a tool to benefit underdeveloped nations through environmental and trade-related policy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-459
Author(s):  
Alexander Gilder

Abstract World Peace (And How We Can Achieve It) looks towards a future where there is increasingly optimistic engagement with the concept of peace. Bellamy assesses why the world is the way it is before making suggestions for how the world can achieve peace. Bellamy suggests world peace is achievable and in the final chapter constructs his articles for world peace. This review essay engages with several themes in the book looking at how the history of international law is framed by the author before assessing Bellamy’s arguments in relation to the state and international organisations. Lastly, the essay casts a legal eye over the author’s articles for world peace. The articles will be of particular interest to readers in international law as they are embedded in the existing systems and structures of the prevailing international system. However, the articles contain the important inclusion of individuals and the role they play in achieving world peace. World Peace allows international lawyers to think more deeply about peace and the points made in this essay raise some issues that may be further debated as scholars map the paths to peace.


This volume provides a forum for some of the best new philosophical work on law, by both senior and junior scholars from around the world. The chapters range widely over issues in general jurisprudence (the nature of law, adjudication, and legal reasoning); the philosophical foundations of specific areas of law (from criminal law to evidence to international law); the history of legal philosophy; and related philosophical topics that illuminate the problems of legal theory.


Author(s):  
Viñuales Jorge E

This chapter focuses on sustainable development, which is the main concept underpinning the policy response to the environmental crisis the world faces. It examines the concept of sustainable development specifically from the perspective of international law. The chapter investigates three main aspects: (1) the conceptual history of sustainable development; (2) the legal meaning attached to this concept; and, on the basis of these two aspects, also (3) the nature, functions, and practical operation of sustainable development in international legal practice. One major challenge that must be overcome when writing about sustainable development is the conceptual fog coating a large part of the work in this area. This is partly due to the deliberate vagueness of the concept, which lends itself to far too many (mis-)interpretations. To navigate this difficulty, one must strike a balance among three competing considerations, namely the conceptual aspects of sustainable development, the actual practice in the use of this concept, and its inherent ethical dimension.


Author(s):  
Daniel Joyce

This chapter considers the significance of objects for international law through the lens of collecting and curation. It focusses upon the history of the cabinet of curiosities (or wunderkammer) as a precursor to the modern museum. The metaphor of the cabinet of curiosities reveals the folly of international law’s ambition to represent and order the world. Interpreting and critiquing the history of international law in light of its material culture reveals its Eurocentricity and connection to empire. The chapter invites critical reflection upon the volume as a whole as a cabinet of curiosities, open to its limitations as a collection, but also offering innovation and contemporary insight through its idiosyncrasy and personal form. It concludes by considering the turn to materiality in the context of broader anxieties generated by the digital era.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document