The fall of dictatorial regimes and the eruption of destructive civil conflicts around the world have led to calls for holding individuals accountable for human rights atrocities. This book offers a comprehensive study of the promise and limitations of international criminal law as a means of enforcing international human rights and humanitarian law. It provides a searching analysis of the principal crimes under the law of nations, such as genocide and crimes against humanity and an appraisal of the most important prosecutorial and other mechanisms developed to bring individuals to justice. This fully updated new edition also contains expanded coverage of the increasing numbers of international criminal trials including the cases of Bosnia, Serbia, and East Timor. It also explores individual accountability for terrorist acts and accountability for acts undertaken in the name of counter-terrorism policy, and provides expanded coverage of aggression and crimes against peace.

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-Prosecural Options: Investigatory Commissions, Civil Suits, Immigration Measures, and Lustration 11. Developing the Case: Comments on Evidence and Judicial Assistance 12. 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 Mechanism 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