Publisher's Synopsis
In 1933, a proposal by Raphael Lemkin on the 'crime of barbarity' was brought before the Legal Council of the League of Nations, being the first formal attempt to create a law against genocide. In 1946, the United Nations adopted Resolution 96 confirming the crime of genocide, but it was not until 1948 that a definition of genocide came into being in the Genocide Convention. It has been through case law that the definition of genocide became more clear. In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights noted that the narrow view of 'intent to destroy' was the majority opinion among legal scholars. This narrow view included the necessity of biological-physical destruction of groups in order for the action to qualify as genocide. It concluded furthermore that both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice agreed to the narrow interpretation. Laying the foundation for the punishment of the crime of genocide, the precise definition of the term remained a topic of debate among legal scholars. This book examines all case law on genocide from the start of the 20th century to the cases brought before the Tribunals in more recent times. Genocide on Trial should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the history of war crimes trials, as well as scholars wanting a collection of case law related to genocide.
