This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Hobsbawm, Eric (2002). Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life. New York: Pantheon Books
Nikolai Jorgic, Bundesverfassungsgericht [Federal Constitutional Court], Fourth Chamber, Second Senate, 12 December 2000, 2 BvR 1290/99.
Prosecutor v. Jelisic (Case no. IT-95-10-T), Judgment, 14 December 1999. Paragraph 42.
Prosecutor v. Karadzic & Mladic, Case nos. IT-95-18-R61, IT-95-5-R61, Transcript of hearing of 27 June 1996, pp. 15–16.
Prosecutor v. Krstic, Case no. IT-98-33-T, Judgment, 2 August 2001. Paragraph 556.
Schwarzenberger, Georg (1957). International Law. Vol. 1: International Law—As Applied by International Courts and Tribunals. 3rd edition. London: Stevens.
United Nations, (1994). Final Report of the Commission of Experts Established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992). UN Document S/1994/674, New York: Author.
United States. Senate (1950). Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations, 23 January 1950 Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Annotated Bibliography
Amann, Diane Marie (1999) Prosecutor v. Akayesu: Judgment, by International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on charges, of genocide and international crimes of sexual violence American Journal of International Law, 93(1), 195–199. A leading American criminal lawyer with expertise in international and comparative criminal law analyses the first major genocide ruling of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The Akayesu decision addressed legal texts that had not been considered judicially since the Eichmann case. It advanced a number of innovative and controversial approaches to the Convention definition, adopted in 1948. For example, innovatively, citing the intent of the drafters of the 1948 Convention, the decision proposed an expansive scope to the groups covered, so as, to include all “permanent and stable groups.” As for a controversial approach, it argued that rape could be considered an act of genocide, to the extent that it might constitute a measure aimed at preventing births within the group. In a patriarchal society, the judgment argued, rape may be intended to have women bear children, from the rapists, ethnic group, thereby compromising the survival of the victim's group).
Boot, Machteld (2002). Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes: Nullum Crimen Sine Lege and the Subject Matter Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Antwerp: Intersentia. 708 pp. Boot reviews the three core crimes that fall within the jurisdiction, of the International Criminal Court (ICC) including, of course, genocide, to which a lengthy chapter is specifically devoted. Her study takes account of the drafting history of the UNCG, but focuses on how the, definition will be interpreted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the light of the contemporary context.
Chalk, Frank, and Jonassohn, Kurt (1990). The conceptual framework. In Chalk, Frank and Jonassohn, Kurt (Eds.), The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 2–53. Chalk and Jonassohn's keynote essay sets out the broad strokes of the legal debate, taking a position for expanding the definition of genocide so as to cover a broad range of mass killing and other atrocities.
Lemkin, Raphael (1944). Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for World Peace, Division of International Law. 674 pp. The term “genocide” was devised by Raphael Lemkin, and first presented in his important study on Nazi occupation policy. One of the chapters in the book is entitled “Genocide.” Lemkin clearly saw the crime as one directed against national groups, rather than vulnerable groups in general. He worked tirelessly, to see his concept come to fruition in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Lippman, Matthew (1999). Genocide In Bassiouni, M. Cherif (Ed.) International Criminal Law. Vol. I: Crimes 2nd ed. Ardsley, NY: Transnational, pp. 589–616. One of the most prolific writers on the subject of the Genocide Convention Matthew Lippman has written the chapter on the subject in Cherif Bassiouni's monumental three-volume collection in International Criminal Law. Lippman discusses the historical background to the criminalization of genocide, including the drafting of the UNCG and the influence of the post-war trials. He also reviews the debate and the issues surrounding ratification of the Convention by the United States of America.
Robinson, Nehemiah (1960). The Genocide Convention: A Commentary. New York: Institute of Jewish Affairs, World Jewish Congress. 158 pp.
Robinson's commentary was one of the first important monographs on the Genocide Convention. It preceded the Eichmann trial by a little more than a year, so it had no case law whatsoever on which to rely. It is based virtually exclusively on the travaux, prèparatoires of the Convention.
Schabas, William, (2000). Genocide in International Law: The Crimes of Crimes. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 624 pp. (German edition: Schabas, William (2003). Genozid im Völkerrecht. Translated by Holger Fliessbach. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 792 pp.) This exhaustive volume is widely recognised as the principal monograph on genocide's legal aspects. Writing in Ethnic & Racial Studies, Herbert Hirsch described Genocide in International Law as “a monumental work—an indispensable reference, for scholars and legal practitioners.” Martin Mennecke, in the German Yearbook of International Law, described it, as “a standard point of reference for anybody interested in the legal aspects of the “crime of crimes.” Genocide in International Law reviews the drafting history of the UNCG, devoting specific chapters to the main interpretative difficulties: the physical and mental elements of the crime, the protected groups, secondary participation, domestic implementation extradition, and the prevention of genocide by the United Nations and other international organizations. It has influenced the emerging judicial interpretations, even when it is not specifically referred to, as has been noted by Diane Amann (2002) in her article “Group Mentality, Expressivism and Genocide in International Criminal Law Review, Volume 2, p. 93). The book has also been cited in the major genocide judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Whitaker, Ben (1985). Revised and Updated Report on the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. New York: United Nations, Economic and Social Council. 62 pp. UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1985/6. 2 July 1985. Benjamin Whitaker's study for the United Nationns Sub-Commission on Human Rights revised an earlier, controversial report by Nicodeme Ruhashyankiko. Whitaker made a number of bold interpretative suggestions, including enlarging the Convention, definition to cover vulnerable groups such as homosexuals who would not be included, even on a broad reading of the enumeration of national, ethnic, racial, and religious groups. He was also the first to propose a construction of the words, “in part” whereby destruction of certain social strata, such as leaders, clergy, and intellectuals, within the group would be viewed as an act of genocide.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schabas, W.A. The international legal prohibition of genocide comes of age. Hum Rights Rev 5, 46–56 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-004-1027-z
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-004-1027-z