Book dossier

Moral accountability and international criminal law

by Kirsten Fisher

"In the past couple of decades an autonomous international system of law has aggressively developed to deal with individual criminal responsibility for the most heinous of crimes. However, the development and application of the international criminal system is mired in criticism and concern. While international criminal law is playing an increasingly important role in global politics and issues of global security, normative theory has not kept pace with the advancements in this area of law. This book examines international criminal law (ICL) from a normative perspective, setting out how individuals ought to be held accountable to the world for their contribution to atrocity. In addition to addressing the normative basis for ICL, the book provides criteria for determining the kinds of actions that should be addressed through international criminal law. It asks, and answers, how individual responsibility can be determined in the context of collectively perpetrated political crimes and whether an international criminal justice system can claim universality in a culturally plural world. The book scrutinizes the function of ICL and finally considers how the goals and purpose of international law can be best institutionally supported"-- "This book examines international criminal law from a normative perspective and lays out how responsible agents, individuals and the collectives they comprise, ought to be held accountable to the world for the commission of atrocity. The author provides criteria for determining the kinds of actions that should be addressed through international criminal law. Additionally, it asks, and answers, how individual responsibility can be determined in the context of collectively perpetrated political crimes and whether an international criminal justice system can claim universality in a culturally plural world. The book also examines the function of international criminal law and finally considers how the goals and purposes of international law can best be institutionally supported. This book is of particular interest to a multidisciplinary academic audience in political science, philosophy, and law, however the book is written in clear jargon-free prose that is intended to render the arguments accessible to the non-specialist reader interested in global justice, human rights and international criminal law"--