War Crimes

War Crimes

Embracing mainstream international law, this section on war crimes explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.

Resources

Further Reading

• The entry “war crimes” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press

Resources

See Also

Excuse; Duress; International Criminal Courts; International Criminal Justice Standards; International Criminal Law; Justification: Necessity; Justification: Self-Defense; Terrorism; War and Violent Crime.

Genocide; Holocaust, U.S. War Effort and the; Justice, Military; Laws of War; Prisoner_of_War Camps, Civil War; War.

Genocide; Holocaust, The; War; World War II

Anthropology; Archaeology; Disappeared children of Argentina; DNA mixtures, forensic interpretation of mass graves; Identification of war victims in Croatia and Bosnia.

Further Reading (Books)

Falk, Richard A.; Kolko, Gabriel; and Lifton, Robert Jay, eds. Crimes of War: A Legal, Political, Documentary, and Psychological Inquiry into the Responsibility of Leaders, Citizens, and Soldiers for Criminal Acts in Wars. New York: Random House, 1971.

Falk, Richard A.; Meyrowitz, Lee; and Sanderson, Jack. “Nuclear Weapons and International Law.” Occasional Paper No. 10. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University, Center of International Studies, 1981.

Friedman, Leon, ed. The Law of War: A Documentary History. 2 vols. Foreword by Telford Taylor. New York: Random House, 1972.

Friedman, Leon, and Tiefenbrun, Susan, eds. War Crimes and War Crimes Tribunals: Past, Present and Future. Vol. 3 of Hofstra Law and Policy Symposium. Hempstead, N.Y.: Hofstra University School of Law, 1999.

Grotius, Hugo. The Law of War and Peace (1625). 3 vols. Translated by Francis W. Kelsey, with the collaboration of Arthur E. R. Boak, Henry A. Sanders, Jesse S. Reeves, and Herbert F. Wright. Introduction by James Brown Scott. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 1925. Photographic reprint. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.

Hammer, Richard. One Morning in the War: The Tragedy at Son My. New York: Coward-McCann, 1970.

Keen, Maurice H. The Laws of War in the Late Middle Ages. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965.

Lieber, Francis. “Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field” [The Lieber Code] (1863). International Law Discussions, 1903: The United States Naval War Code of 1900. U.S. Naval War College. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904. Pages 115-139.

Marrin, Albert, ed. War and the Christian Conscience: From Augustine to Martin Luther King, Jr. Chicago: Regnery, 1971.

Minear, Richard H. Victor's Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.

Further Reading (Books 2)

Red Cross, International Committee. Conference of Government Experts on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts: Report on the Work of the Conference. Geneva: The Committee, 1977.

“Respect for Human Rights in Armed Conflicts.” G.A. Res. 2444. Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly during Its Twenty-Third Session, September 24-December 21, 1968. U.N. Doc. A/72 18. New York: UN, 1969. Pages 50-51.

Taylor, Telford. Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy. New York: Quadrangle, 1970.

Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, Nov. 14, 1945-Oct. 1, 1946. 42 vols. Nuremberg: The Tribunal, 1947-1949. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1971.

Trials of War Criminals before the Nurenberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, October 1946-April 1949. 15 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1949-1953.

United Nations, General Assembly. “Declaration on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear and Thermonuclear Weapons.” G.A. Res. 1653. Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly during Its Sixteenth Session, September 19, 1961-February 23, 1962, vol. 1. U.N. Doc. A/5100. New York: UN, 1962. Pages 4-5.

United Nations, War Crimes Commission. Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Selected and Prepared by the UN War of Crimes Commission. 15 vols. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1947-1949.

Vittoria, Francisco de. “The Second Relectio of the Reverend Father, Brother Franciscus de Victoria on the Indians [and] on the Law of War Made by the Spaniards on the Barbarians.” Translated by John Pawley Bate. Edited by Ernest Nys. Preface by James Brown Scott. In The Classics of International Law, vol. 7. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution, 1917. Pages 163-187.

Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. New York: Basic Books, 1977.

Wedgwood, Cicely V. The Thirty Years War. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1939.

Further Reading (Articles)

Morris Greenspan, The Soldier's Guide to the Laws of War, 1969.

Richard Hammer, The Court_Martial of Lieutenant Calley, 1971.

R. H. Minear, Victor's Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, 1971.

S. D. Baily, Prohibitions and Restraints in War, 1972.

Seymour Hersh, Cover_up, 1972.

James F. Willis, Prologue to Nuremberg: The Politics and Diplomacy of Punishing War Criminals of the First World War, 1981.

C. Hosoya, et al. eds., The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: An International Symposium, 1986.

Telford Taylor, Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir, 1992.

George J. Andreopoulos and Mark R. Shulman, eds., The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World, 1994.

Geoffrey Best, War and Law Since 1945, 1994.

Theodor Merron, Comments: War Crimes in Yugoslavia and the Development of International Law, American Journal of International Law, 88 (January 1994), p. 78.

Joseph E. Persico, Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial, 1994.

Michael R. Marrus, ed., The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial: A Documentary History, 1997.

Rod Paschall

Detter, Ingrid. 2000. The Law of War, 2nd ed. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Neier, Aryeh. 1998. War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror, and the Struggle for Justice. New York: Times Books.

David Cohen

War crime trials from a media angle, The New Nation (Dhaka, India); November 12, 2009

U.S. journalists and war-crime guilt, Arab American News; October 18, 2008; Dyer, Peter

'War crime' justice and double standards, The Scotsman; June 28, 2001; Allan Massie

Ayoon wa Azan (The Original War Crime)., Dar Al Hayat, International ed. (Beirut, Lebanon); January 23, 2009

SIERRA LEONE: THE PROVING GROUND FOR PROSECUTING RAPE AS A WAR CRIME, Georgetown Journal of International Law; July 1, 2004; Eaton, Shana

Bosnian Serb police make first war crime arrests, eight charged, AP Worldstream; November 15, 2004; SAMIR KRILIC, Associated Press Writer

War crime court itself may also be on trial; The war crimes trial starting today is unprecedented in the seniority of the accused but it is also likely to be the Hague court's swan song, writes Chris Stephen, The Irish Times; February 12, 2002

Threat of war crime ruling on British forces, Scotland on Sunday (Edinburgh, Scotland); December 29, 2002; CHRIS STEPHEN

On Target: The Rhetoric of War Crime Allegations, Esprit de Corps; October 1, 2013; Taylor, Scott

Son Thang: An American War Crime., Michigan Law Review; May 1, 1998; Everett, Robinson O.

Where's the War Crime Court, The Washington Post; July 30, 1993; Stephen S. Rosenfeld

207 WAR CRIME SUSPECTS IN BRITAIN BUT ONLY 29 QUIZZED; DMLI FOREIGN KILLERS ON OUR STREETS Probe into Five Nazis, The Mirror (London, England); March 14, 2013

207 WAR CRIME SUSPECTS IN BRITAIN BUT ONLY 29 QUIZZED; FOREIGN KILLERS ON OUR STREETS; Probe into Five Nazis; EXCLUSIVE, The Mirror (London, England); March 14, 2013

Plan for Prosecuting War-Crime Cases Gets Mixed Response., Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News; April 9, 2003

Sierra Leone War-Crime Trials to Begin, AP Online; June 2, 2004; EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

War crime hearing against Bush, Blair begins, New Straits Times; November 20, 2011

207 WAR CRIME SUSPECTS IN BRITAIN BUT ONLY 29 QUIZZED; DM1ST FOREIGN KILLERS ON OUR STREETS Probe into Five Nazis, The Mirror (London, England); March 14, 2013

War crime probe agency, tribunal named., The New Nation (Dhaka, India); March 26, 2010

Croatia Arrests War Crime Suspects, AP Online; September 13, 2000; SNJEZANA VUKIC, Associated Press Writer

The war crime trials at The Hague.(Book Review), Contemporary Review; October 1, 2004; Whiston, Amna