International Criminal Law

by University of Florence; Depart

• ISBN13: 9780415603188
• ISBN10: 0415603188
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2015-12-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In 1993, the United Nations Security Council set up an ad hoc tribunal to bring to trial those accused of the worst breaches of humanitarian law in the war-torn former Yugoslavia, thus setting in motion a process which has significantly raised the profile and importance of international criminal justice. Whether through a proliferation of international criminal courts and tribunals, or by the many pronouncements in domestic courts on international crimes, the patchwork of disparate rules, principles, conventions, and treaties is now taking discernible shape, and a distinct corpus of law operating across diverse cultures and distinct legal traditions is rapidly emerging. Responding to these momentous developments, this new title from Routledge's Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Law, addresses the acute need for an authoritative reference work that traces the evolution of the emerging discipline of international criminal law. The learned editors aver that now is the time to take stock and make some sense of the subject's dauntingly vast literature, to identify a canon, and to engage with its key concepts. Selected by Antonio Cassese, the first President of the Yugoslavia Tribunal and the author of some of the most influential books on the subject, and a small team of noted scholars, this new four-volume collection assembles the best scholarship from the time of Nuremberg and Tokyo to the present day. The volume editors have realized an ambitious aim. Not only does International Criminal Lawbring together ground-breaking material sourced from a wide range of academic journals, edited collections, textbooks, and monographs, many of which are now hard to obtain, the editors also illuminate the much broader-and fundamental-issues related to impunity, guilt, restitution, and social reconciliation. Thus, the first volume in the collection ('General Questions') focuses on the evolution of international criminal law and addresses vexed issues such as the nature of international criminality, politics versus law, and the impact of international trials on national public opinion. While Volume II ('Substantive Law') collects key work on the major legal issues arising in international proceedings (categories of crime, intent, modes of responsibility, defences, among others), Volume III ('Institutions and Procedure') describes the institutional and procedural mechanism for dealing with criminal cases at the international level. The final volume in the collection ('Alternatives and Prospects') explores the fundamental question of how international justice should be done, pitting the international courtroom against the alternative forums of domestic trial chambers, civil courts, or community-based transitional justice apparatus. With a full index, a comprehensive introduction, and short forewords providing annotation to each section of the collection, International Criminal Law is an essential, authoritative, and accessible work of reference for scholar, student, and practitioner alike.