Abstract
In this chapter I consider in what sense acts characterized as being crimes against humanity can be reckoned to be, indeed, against humanity. The term crimes against humanity is now part of contemporary usage. Designating a class of offense under international law, it has also entered into moral and political discourse more generally. Its range and content are therefore of some interest. Since the notion of a crime that is against humanity is not transparent, it is worth inquiring whether any clear and useful meaning can be given to it.
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Notes
Egon Schwelb, “Crimes Against Humanity,” British Year Book of International Law 23 (1946): 178–226, at p. 195.
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (London: Penguin Books, 1977), p. 275.
Geoffrey Robertson, Crimes against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice (London: Penguin Books, 2000), p. 220.
Geoffrey Best, Nuremberg and After: The Continuing History of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity (Reading: University of Reading Press, 1984), p. 15.
Bing Bing Jia, “The Differing Concepts of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in International Criminal Law,” in Guy S. Goodwin-Gill and Stefan Talmon, eds, The Reality of International Law: Essays in Honour of Ian Brownlie (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 243–71.
Diane F. Orentlicher, “Settling Accounts: The Duty to Prosecute Human Rights Violations of a Prior Regime,” Yale Law Journal 100 (1991): 2537–615.
Matthew Lippman, “Crimes Against Humanity,” Boston College Third World Law Journal 17 (1997): 171–273, at pp. 216–17.
Richard Vernon, “What is Crime against Humanity?” Journal of Political Philosophy 10 (2002): 231–49.
Alain Finkielkraut, Remembering in Vain: The Klaus Barbie Trial and Crimes Against Humanity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), pp. 35–6, 47–9.
Ronald C. Slye, “Apartheid as a Crime Against Humanity: A Submission to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” Michigan Journal of International Law 20 (1999): 267–300, at p. 270.
Margaret McAuliffe deGuzman, “The Road from Rome: The Developing Law of Crimes Against Humanity,” Human Rights Quarterly 22 (2000): 335–403, at p. 338.
Eve Garrard, “Forgiveness and the Holocaust,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 5 (2002): 147–65.
See Norman Geras, The Contract of Mutual Indifference: Political Philosophy after the Holocaust (London: Verso, 1998), pp. 1–82.
See Norman Geras, Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a Legend (London: Verso, 1983).
Norman Geras, Solidarity in the Conversation of Humankind: The Ungroundable Liberalism of Richard Rorty (London: Verso, 1995), especially chapters 2 and 3.
Michael J. Perry, The Idea of Human Rights: Four Enquiries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 61–3, 71.
Stuart Hampshire, Innocence and Experience (London: Allen Lane, 1989), pp. 90–1, 106.
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© 2005 Norman Geras
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Geras, N. (2005). Genocide and Crimes against Humanity. In: Roth, J.K. (eds) Genocide and Human Rights. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230554832_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230554832_14
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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