This chapter offers a brief historical introduction to the rise of individual accountability for international crimes. It first outlines the history of war crimes prosecutions prior to the Nuremberg Trials. It then introduces the origins of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (IMT), the conduct of the trial of the major war criminals, the legal controversies involved, and other post World War II proceedings. The remainder of the chapter provides an overview of national prosecutions after 1945 and the complexities involved in drafting national legislation allowing such prosecutions; examines the ‘rebirth’ of international criminal tribunals in the 1990s and early 2000s; and steps back to briefly survey the question of what international criminal law is for or what goals it is intended to serve.
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3. The prosecution of international crimes:
The role of international and national courts and tribunals
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Antonio Cassese, Paola Gaeta, Laurel Baig, Mary Fan, Christopher Gosnell, and Alex Whiting
This chapter discusses the process toward the eventual adoption of a Statute for a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) and the adoption of Statutes of various ad hoc international criminal courts. The process can be conceptualized in terms of several distinct phases: abortive early attempts (1919–45); the establishment of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals in the aftermath of the Second World War (1945–7); the post-Cold War ‘new world order’ and the establishment by the UN Security Council of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (1993–4); the drafting and adoption of the ICC Statute (1994–8); and the establishment of ad hoc hybrid criminal courts.
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Antonio Cassese, Paola Gaeta, Laurel Baig, Mary Fan, Christopher Gosnell, and Alex Whiting
This chapter begins with discussions of the Nuremberg Charter and subsequent developments in international law. It then covers the notion of crimes against humanity today; objective and subjective elements; the authors and victims of crime; and Article 7 of the International Criminal Court Statute and customary international law.
