Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Table of cases
- Table of treaties
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The development of the international criminal law regime
- 1 The development of international criminal law
- 2 International criminal law: State rights, responsibilities and problems
- 3 International Criminal Tribunals and the regime of international criminal law enforcement
- Part II Evaluating the regime
- Conclusion
- Select bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW
2 - International criminal law: State rights, responsibilities and problems
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Table of cases
- Table of treaties
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The development of the international criminal law regime
- 1 The development of international criminal law
- 2 International criminal law: State rights, responsibilities and problems
- 3 International Criminal Tribunals and the regime of international criminal law enforcement
- Part II Evaluating the regime
- Conclusion
- Select bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW
Summary
Introduction
Chapters 2 and 3 will explain and evaluate the moves made by a number of States and international organisations towards a regime of international criminal law enforcement. These moves stem from decisions taken in the 1990s to promote accountability in individual situations, which slipped their moorings and led to a commitment by some States and parts of the United Nations to a broader sweep of accountability. This decision was based on a realisation that ‘there is a risk of losing substantive justice when we revert to individual States because often it becomes contingent on the willingness of States to fulfil, among other things, their international obligation to punish international crimes’. To effectuate their policy shift towards accountability, those States have attempted to overcome some of the challenges presented to international criminal law by an international society based on sovereignty, although not to the same extent as was done by the Security Council in relation to the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. They have also taken steps to create a common international criminal law between themselves.
As we shall see in chapter 3, the existence of such a regime for international crimes involving international and domestic courts can now confidently be asserted. As Judges Higgins, Kooijmans and Buergenthal put it: ‘the international consensus that the perpetrators of international crimes should not go unpunished is being advanced by a flexible strategy, in which newly established international criminal tribunals, treaty obligations and national courts all have their part to play.’
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Prosecuting International CrimesSelectivity and the International Criminal Law Regime, pp. 73 - 123Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005