Abstract
The Introduction presents the main question of this book, namely why the 15 members of the UNSC decide to investigate some atrocities, but fail to do so for others, and then offers an overview of this book’s argument that the UNSC three step decision-making process matters. The Introduction also presents the research sources used to develop this argument and presents the structure of the subsequent chapters. It concludes by defining some core terms.
Over a month ago the United States proposed to the United Kingdom , Soviet Russia and France a specific plan, in writing, that these four powers join in a protocol establishing an International Military Tribunal, defining the jurisdiction and powers of the tribunal, naming the categories of acts declared to be crimes, and describing those individuals and organizations to be placed on trial. Negotiation of such an agreement between the four powers is not yet completed.
Justice Robert Jackson, Report to the President on Atrocities and War Crimes, June 7, 1945.
(Jackson 1945)
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Notes
- 1.
Public Redacted Version of the Prosecutor’s Application under Article 58, ICC-02/05 (July 14, 2008).
- 2.
S/RES/1593 (2005).
- 3.
Darfur is a region in the western part of Sudan.
- 4.
For an overview, see McKeown (1999).
- 5.
E.g. King et al. (1994).
- 6.
E.g. Eckstein (1975) (the ‘crucial case-study’).
- 7.
Abbott and Snidal (2000).
- 8.
Osiel (1998).
- 9.
This obscurity appears to be a rather ancient problem. In the Justinian code, for example, an atrocity included all acts that were legally inexcusable even when carried out under formal orders – see Digest of Justinian, Law 157, tit. XVII, Lib. L.
- 10.
War Crimes Reports 7 (1947) 27, 41–42.
- 11.
Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its Forty-Third Session, U.N. GAOR, 46th Sess., Supp. No. 10, at 198, U.N. Doc. A/46/10 (1991) (defining atrocities “as acts of inhumanity, cruelty or barbarity directed against the life, dignity or physical or mental integrity of persons [in particular wilful killing, torture, mutilation, biological experiments, taking of hostages, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, unjustifiable delay in the repatriation of prisoners of war after the cessation of active hostilities, deportation or transfer of the civilian population and collective punishment];”).
- 12.
E.g. Scheffer (2013).
- 13.
ICC, Appeals Chamber, The Prosecutor v. Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mohammed Hussein Ali, 30 August 2011, ICC-01/09-02/11-274, paras. 1 and 40; ICC, Pre-Trial Chamber I, The Prosecutor v. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi, 11 October 2013, ICC-01/11-01/11, para. 66.
- 14.
For the same reasons, this book does not examine the proprio motu investigations commenced by the ICC’s Prosecutor. See more below.
References
Books and Articles
Abbott, Kenneth, and Duncan Snidal. 2000. Hard and Soft Law in International Governance. International Organization 54.03: 421–456.
Digest of Justinian, Law 157, tit. XVII, Lib. L. 1985. ed. Theodore Mommsen and Paul Krueger, Trans. A. Watson. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Eckstein, Harry. 1975. Case Study and Theory in Political Science. In Handbook of Political Science, Political Science: Scope and Theory, ed. Fred I. Greenstein and Nelson W. Polsby, vol. 1. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
McKeown, Timothy J. 1999. Case Studies and the Statistical Worldview: Review of King. International Organization 53: 161–190.
Osiel, Mark J. 1998. Obeying Orders: Atrocity, Military Discipline, and the Law of War. California Law Review: 939–1129.
Scheffer, David. 2013. All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Court Documents
International Criminal Court
Appeals Chamber, The Prosecutor v. Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mohammed Hussein Ali, “Judgment on the appeal of the Republic of Kenya against the decision of Pre-Trial Chamber II of 30 May 2011 entitled ‘Decision on the Application by the Government of Kenya Challenging the Admissibility of the Case Pursuant to Article 19(2)(b) of the Statute’,” ICC-01/09-02/11-274 (August 30, 2011).
Pre-Trial Chamber I, The Prosecutor v. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi, “Decision on the admissibility of the case against Abdullah Al-Senussi”, ICC-01/11-01/11 (October 11, 2011).
Public Redacted Version of the Prosecutor’s Application under Article 58, International Criminal Court, ICC-02/05 (July 14, 2008).
Government Documents
Justice Jackson’s Report to the President on Atrocities and War Crimes (June 7, 1945), accessible at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/imt_jack01.asp.
War Crimes Reports 7 (1947) 27.
UN Documents
Reports
A/46/10, Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its Forty-Third Session, U.N. GAOR, 46th Sess., Supp. No. 10 (1991).
Resolutions
S/RES/1593, Sudan (March 19, 2005).
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Kaoutzanis, C. (2020). Introduction. In: The UN Security Council and International Criminal Tribunals: Procedure Matters . Studies in Global Justice, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23777-6_1
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