The book offers an introduction to international law's approaches to holding individuals accountable for human rights atrocities, exploring whether human rights abusers can and should be brought to justice. The authors examine how, in the years since the Nuremberg Trials, states have created international norms holding abusers accountable, tried such people domestically and internationally for their crimes, and established other, non-criminal forms of accountability. These include trials in domestic courts and international tribunals such as the UN's Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals and the International Criminal Court, as well as nonprosecutorial mechanisms including civil suits, truth commissions, and immigration measures. The authors appraise the state of the law and its mechanisms, including analysis of the principal crimes (such as genocide and crimes against humanity) and discuss the opportunities for and challenges to further steps aimed at accountability.

PART I: SUBSTANTIVE LAW 1. Individual Accountability for Human Rights Abuses: Historical and Legal Underpinnings 2. Genocide and the Imperfections of Codification 3. Crimes Against Humanity and the Inexactitude of Custom 4. War Crimes and the Limitations of Accountability for Acts in Armed Conflict 5. Other Abuses Incurring Individual Responsibility under International Law 6. Expanding and Contracting Culpability: Complicity, Defenses, and Other Barriers to Criminality PART II: MECHANISMS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY 7. Mechanisms for Accountability: Framing the Issues 8. The Forum of First Resort: National Tribunals 9. The Progeny of Nuremberg: International Criminal Tribunals 10. Non-Prosecutorial Options: Investigatory Comissions, Civil Suits, Immigration Measures, and Lustration 11. Developing the Case: Comments on Evidence and Judicial Assistance PART III: A CASE STUDY: THE ATTROCITIES OF THE KHMER ROUGE 12. The Khmer Rouge Rule over Cambodia: A Historical Overview 13. Applying the Law 14. Engaging the Mechanisms PART IV: CONCLUSIONS 15. Striving for Justice: The Prospects for Individual Accountability Appendices

Steven R. Ratner , Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School, Jason S. Abrams , Consultant to the United Nations, James L. Bischoff , Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the United States Department of State

`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