Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law: Beyond the Nuremberg Legacy

by Steven R. Ratner, Jason S. Abrams, James L. Bischoff

Overview

This book explores the promises and limitations of holding individuals accountable for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. It analyses the principal crimes under international law, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and appraises both prosecutorial and other key mechanisms developed to bring individuals to justice. After applying their conclusions in a detailed case study, the authors offer a series of compelling conclusions on the prospects for accountability. This fully updated new edition contains expanded coverage of national trials under universal jurisdiction, international criminal tribunals including the International Criminal Court, new hybrid tribunals in Cambodia and elsewhere, truth commissions, and lustration. It also explores individual accountability for terrorist acts and for abuses committed in the name of counter-terrorism policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191018671
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	01/29/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Steven R. Ratner is Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School Jason S. Abrams is an international lawyer based in New York James Bischoff works in the offices of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Juan Torruella

Table of Contents

PART I: SUBSTANTIVE LAW
1: Individual Accountability for Human Rights Abuses: Historical and Legal Underpinnings
2: Genocide and the Imperfections of Codification
3: Crimes Against Humanity and the Inexactitude of Custom
4: War Crimes and the Limitations of Accountability for Acts in Armed Conflict
5: Other Abuses Incurring Individual Responsibility under International Law
6: Expanding and Contracting Culpability: Complicity, Defenses, and Other

PART II: MECHANISMS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
7: Mechanisms for Accountability: Framing the Issues
8: The Forum of First Resort: National Tribunals
9: The Progeny of Nuremberg: International Criminal Tribunals
10: Non-Prosecural Options: Investigatory Commissions, Civil Suits, Immigration Measures, and Lustration
11: Developing the Case: Comments on Evidence and Judicial Assistance
12: Developing the Case: Comments on Evidence and Judicial Assistance

PART III: A CASE STUDY: THE ATTROCITIES OF THE KHMER ROUGE
12: The Khmer Rouge Rule over Cambodia: A Historical Overview
13: Applying the Law
14: Engaging the Mechanism

PART IV: CONCLUSIONS
15: Striving for Justice: The Prospects for Individual Accountability
Appendices

What People are Saying About This

Richard J. Goldstone

Ratner and Abrams provide an incisive, knowledgeable, and comprehensive look at the substantive law and legal institutions that inhabit the intersection of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law....This volume...is a timely and essential resource for any scholar or practitioner.
—(Richard J. Goldstone, Justice, Constitutional Court of South Africa, and former Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia)

W. M. Reisman

In their comprehensive and sober examination of the efforts to direct substantive international law from states to individuals and to invent effective mechanisms for personal accountability, Ratner and Abrams have produced a valuable, timely, indeed indispensable work. It will surely influence the formation of the United Nations International Criminal Court. More important, it will focus attention on the wide range of other techniques the authors identify for making individuals accountable for human rights atrocities.
—(W. M. Reisman, Wesley N. Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale Law School, and former President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights)

Editorial Reviews

This excellent book provides a thoroughly researched and eloquently written survey of the legal and policy framework within which these and other complex issues may be examined. It combines scholarly erudition with a practical sense and thus provides a valuable instrument for the pursuit of international justice. It is indispensable reading for students, practitioners, scholars and others interested in accountability for gross human rights abuses.

American Journal of International Law

"Ratner and Abrams provide an incisive, knowledgeable, and comprehensive look at the substantive law and legal institutions that inhabit the intersection of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law....This volume...is a timely and essential resource for any scholar or practitioner."—Richard J. Goldstone, Justice, Constitutional Court of South Africa, and former Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

"In their comprehensive and sober examination of the efforts to direct substantive international law from states to individuals and to invent effective mechanisms for personal accountability, Ratner and Abrams have produced a valuable, timely, indeed indispensable work. It will surely influence the formation of the United Nations International Criminal Court. More important, it will focus attention on the wide range of other techniques the authors identify for making individuals accountable for human rights atrocities."—W. M. Reisman, Wesley N. Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale Law School, and former President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

"This excellent book provides a thoroughly researched and eloquently written survey of the legal and policy framework within which these and other complex issues may be examined. It combines scholarly erudition with a practical sense and thus provides a valuable instrument for the pursuit of international justice. It is indispensable reading for students, practitioners, scholars and others interested in accountability for gross human rights abuses."—The American Journal of International Law

From the Publisher