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Two Kinds of Wrong: On the Context Element of Crimes against Humanity

By International Association of Penal Law

The Leiden Journal of International Law (LJIL 22 [2009], pp. 525-541) has just published my article ?Two Kinds of Wrong: On the Context Element of Crimes against Humanity? in which I try to demonstrate that – as with the tie between crimes against humanity and the perpetration of other international crimes in the Charter of the IMT in Nuremberg – the context element of the crimes against humanity as set out in the Rome Statute is based on the international law principle of non-interference in the affairs of a foreign country, and only serves to justify ?international? jurisdiction in respect of crimes which are typically already punishable pursuant to the lex loci commissii. As a consequence, the feature of a ?widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population? is not an aggravating circumstance in respect of the material facts of the case that define the wrong of the act (Unrecht) or the offender’s blameworthiness (Schuld), but a jurisdictional element which is a mere precondition for prosecution only...continue to full post

Full post as published by AIDP Blog on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).