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

Ratner, Steven R.; Abrams, Jason S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199248338 ISBN 13: 9780199248339

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2001

Synopsis

The fall of dictatorial regimes and the eruption of destructive civil conflicts around the world have led to calls for holding individuals accountable for human rights atrocities. International law had little to say on this subject from the time of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials fifty years ago until very recently. In this well-researched book, Steven Ratner and Jason Abrams offer a comprehensive study of the promise and limitations of international criminal law as a means of enforcing international human rights and humanitarian law. They provide a searching analysis of the principal crimes under the law of nations, such as genocide and crimes against humanity. They go on to appraise the most important prosecutorial and other 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. In this new edition the authors also cover recent developments such as the jurisprudence of the UN's Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals, new domestic attempts at accountability, and the International Criminal Court. This new edition has been revised and updated to include developments since 1997, including domestic prosecutions and truth commission, the work of the UN's Yugoslavia and Rwand Tribunals, and the International Criminal Court.

About this title

Review:

"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

Book Description:

Winner of ASIL Certificate of Merit 1997

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0199248338
• ISBN 13: 9780199248339
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 484