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13 - ‘The Beginning of Something Great’?

International Criminal Law in the Interwar Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2025

By
Sévane Garibian
General editor
Randall Lesaffer
Edited by
Robert Kolb  and
Momchil Milanov
Randall Lesaffer
Affiliation:
KU Leuven and Tilburg University
Robert Kolb
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
Momchil Milanov
Affiliation:
International Court of Justice
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Summary

A hybrid legal discipline dealing with the relationships between the right to punish and state sovereignty, international criminal law (ICL) overturns classical conceptions of the state, law and justice. Its existence, foundations, scope and effectiveness are determined by the outcome of an attempt – which has proved more or less successful throughout the different phases of its evolution – to reconcile it with the founding principles of the modern state, sovereignty and legality, inherited from the Enlightenment. Adopting a historical perspective helps us its development, on either side of the pivotal moment represented by the creation of the League of Nations: the starting point marked by the 1919 Paris Conference and the immediate aftermath of the First World War; and the turning point marked by the work of the League and international legal doctrine in the interwar era. These two crucial phases saw a string of initiatives which, rather than failures, can be interpreted as a series of necessary transformations for the emergence of a new discipline and, more generally, a profound change in the global legal and judicial order.

Keywords

sovereigntyinternational crimesVespasian Pellacrimes against humanitygenocideMandelstam
Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge History of International Law , pp. 390 - 434
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

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PCIJ, Advisory Committee of Jurists, Procès-verbaux of the Proceedings of the Committee (June 16th–July 24th 1920) with Annexes (The Hague: Van Langenhuysen Brothers 1920).Google Scholar
LoN, Procès-verbal of the Tenth Session of the Council (London: Harrison and Sons 1920).Google Scholar
LoN, The Records of the First Assembly Plenary Meetings (Geneva: Albert Renaud 1920).Google Scholar
ILA, Thirty-First Conference of the International Law Association (London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd 1922).Google Scholar
ILA, Thirty-Third Conference of the International Law Association (London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd 1924).Google Scholar
IPU, Compte-rendu de la XXIIIe conférence tenue à Washington du 1er au 7 octobre et à Ottawa le 13 octobre 1925 (Lausanne, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Vevey, Montreux and Berne: Libraire Payot 1926).Google Scholar
ILA, Thirty-Fourth Conference of the International Law Association (London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd 1927).Google Scholar
IAPL, Premier Congrès international de droit pénal, Bruxelles. Actes du Congrès (Paris: Godde 1927).Google Scholar
LoN, Actes de la huitième session ordinaire de l’Assemblée. Genève 1927 (Geneva 1928).Google Scholar
IAPL, Projet de statut d’une cour de justice criminelle internationale (Paris: Godde 1928).Google Scholar

Official Documents

Violation of the Laws and Customs of War. Reports of Majority and Dissenting Reports of American and Japanese Members of the Commission of Responsibilities, Conference of Paris, 1919 (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 1919).Google Scholar
PCIJ, Advisory Committee of Jurists, Procès-verbaux of the Proceedings of the Committee (June 16th–July 24th 1920) with Annexes (The Hague: Van Langenhuysen Brothers 1920).Google Scholar
LoN, Procès-verbal of the Tenth Session of the Council (London: Harrison and Sons 1920).Google Scholar
LoN, The Records of the First Assembly Plenary Meetings (Geneva: Albert Renaud 1920).Google Scholar
ILA, Thirty-First Conference of the International Law Association (London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd 1922).Google Scholar
ILA, Thirty-Third Conference of the International Law Association (London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd 1924).Google Scholar
IPU, Compte-rendu de la XXIIIe conférence tenue à Washington du 1er au 7 octobre et à Ottawa le 13 octobre 1925 (Lausanne, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Vevey, Montreux and Berne: Libraire Payot 1926).Google Scholar
ILA, Thirty-Fourth Conference of the International Law Association (London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd 1927).Google Scholar
IAPL, Premier Congrès international de droit pénal, Bruxelles. Actes du Congrès (Paris: Godde 1927).Google Scholar
LoN, Actes de la huitième session ordinaire de l’Assemblée. Genève 1927 (Geneva 1928).Google Scholar
IAPL, Projet de statut d’une cour de justice criminelle internationale (Paris: Godde 1928).Google Scholar

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