Yves Beigbeder

Judging Criminal Leaders:the Slow Erosion of Impunity (Nijhoff Law Specials) Yves Beigbeder 1st edition

In spite of the Geneva and Hague Conventions of the late 19th century, the 20th century has been one of massacres and genocides - the massacres due to European colonialism, two World Wars, the Holocasut, the Armenian and the Rwanda genocides, the casualties caused by the Communist utopia in the USSR, China and Cambodia, and numerous civil wars. Most of the leaders mainly responsible for these massacres and genocides have enjoyed impunity. However, there is a slow popular awakening to the fact that leaders should be accountable for their crimes. A human rights regime was created after World War II, international criminal law has taken root with the Huremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, and, in the 1990s with the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In 1998, the Statute for an International Criminal Court was adopted, while the arrest of former dictator Pinochet in London has created both a political storm and a judiciary advance. The "Princeton Principles on Universal Jurisdiction" have been publicized in an effort to strengthen the application of international law in national legal systems. In Cambodia and Sierra Leone, mixed national/international courts are being set up to try criminal leaders. This volume offers the reader an overview of the various models which are emerging to ensure that criminal leaders and their collaborators are made accountable for their schemes and actions, and clearly illustrates how national, international and mixed national/international tribunals are slowly eroding the impunity of criminal leaders.