Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law: Beyond the Nuremberg Legacy - Softcover

Review from previous edition Ratner and Abrams provide an incisive, knowledgeable, and comprehensive look at the substantive law and legal institutions that inhabit the intersection of international human rights law. The need to hold individuals responsible for abuses of human dignity in war and peace has lately assumed critical importance for the global community. This volume, with its searching appraisal of contemporary doctrinal issues as well as the promises and pitfalls of mechanisms for accountability, is a timely and essential resource for any scholar or practitioner with an interest in these areas of international law. (Richard J. Goldstone)

a timely and highly valuable contribution to the emerging literature on the subject ... an outstanding book that is concise and accessible to a broad audience, yet comprehensive and scholarly ... This excellent book provides a thoroughly researched and eloquently written survey of the legal and policy framework within which these and other complex issues may be examined. It combines scholarly erudition with a practial sense and thus provides a valuable instrument for the pursuit of international justice. It is indispensable reading for students, practitioners, scholars and others interested in accountability for gross human rights abuses. (Payam Akhavan, The American Journal of International Law (Vol 93))

...a timely and welcome addition to international legal literature...What for me is remarkable is that a work of such academic pedigree and intellectual excellence should be such an eminently readable review of all aspects of individual criminal responsibility and international criminal law past, present and potential (Lord Bonomy, Senator of the College of Justice, Edinburgh, Scotland)

This book explores the promises and limitations of holding individuals accountable for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. It analyses the principal crimes under international law, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and appraises both prosecutorial and other key mechanisms developed to bring individuals to justice. After applying their conclusions in a detailed case study, the authors offer a series of compelling conclusions on the prospects for accountability.

This fully updated new edition contains expanded coverage of national trials under universal jurisdiction, international criminal tribunals including the International Criminal Court, new hybrid tribunals in Cambodia and elsewhere, truth commissions, and lustration. It also explores individual accountability for terrorist acts and for abuses committed in the name of counter-terrorism policy.