Incitement in international criminal law

Abstract

The author critically analyses in this article the status of incitement in international criminal law. After a discussion of the relevant judgments by the Nuremberg Tribunal and related courts, including German de-Nazification courts, the travaux préparatoires of the Genocide Convention and the case-law of the International Criminal Tribunals, the international approach is criticized, particularly its practice of regarding only direct and public incitement to genocide as inchoate, whilst instigation generally is treated as not inchoate. The author recommends the adoption of an approach modelled on German and Swiss domestic law and argues that instigation per se should also be regarded as an inchoate crime.