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deGuzman, Margaret M. --- "Crimes against humanity" [2011] ELECD 96; in Brown, S. Bartram (ed), "Research Handbook on International Criminal Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Criminal Law

Editor(s): Brown, S. Bartram

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847202789

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Crimes against humanity

Author(s): deGuzman, Margaret M.

Number of pages: 0

Extract:

4 Crimes against humanity
Margaret M. deGuzman



INTRODUCTION
The modern concept of crimes against humanity is a product of the scale and horror of the
crimes committed in the two world wars as well as a growing consensus in the international
community that certain crimes committed within national borders are legitimate subjects of
international law and adjudication. At its inception, the notion of crimes against humanity
was essentially an extension of the laws of war. Those laws have deep historic roots and aim
to limit the devastation wrought by armed conflict by, among other things, criminalizing
certain conduct by nationals of one state against nationals of another. In contrast, crimes
committed within national borders were, until quite recently, considered outside the purview
of international law. The Holocaust proved a tipping point in international law, spurring the
rapid development of international human rights law and the concomitant evolution of inter-
national criminal law. The Nuremberg Charter thus provided for jurisdiction not only over
war crimes, but also over `crimes against humanity' and `crimes against peace'.1
Unlike war crimes and genocide, crimes against humanity are not codified in an interna-
tional convention. Instead, the law of crimes against humanity has primarily developed through
the evolution of customary international law. Although the statutes of most international and
internationalized2 tribunals contain definitions of these crimes, there are significant differences
among those definitions. For example, the Nuremberg Charter and the Statute of the
International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) require that crimes against
...