Criminalizing atrocity : the global spread of criminal laws against international crimes / created by Mark S. Berlin.

Includes bibliography and index

Intro Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication page Acknowledgments Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations 1. The Puzzle of Atrocity Criminalization The Origins of International Atrocity Law The Importance of Domestic Criminalization Contributions of the Book Why Criminalize Atrocities? The Argument in Brief Research Design and Plan of the Book 2. Explaining the Criminalization of Atrocities Explaining Criminalization through Targeted Legislation Explaining Criminalization through Criminal Code Reform 3. Domesticating Atrocity Law: A Brief Global History Before Atrocity Law: The AIDP, Criminal Law Reform, and the Domestication of International Criminal Law 1945-1957: The Birth of Atrocity Law and Early Efforts at Domestication 1958-1984: From Principled Entrepreneurship to Legal Borrowing 1985-1998: From Theoretical Concern to Practical Dilemma 1999-Present: Transnational Activists Take the Lead Conclusion 4. Pathways and Determinants of Atrocity Criminalization Expectations The Atrocity Law Dataset Statistical Analyses Conclusion 5. The Criminalization of Atrocities in Guatemala The Puzzle of Criminalization in Guatemala Methods and Expectations Empirical Analysis: Testing the Mechanisms Conclusion 6. When Criminal Code Reform Does Not Lead to Atrocity Criminalization Colombia Poland The Maldives Conclusion 7. Conclusion Implications for Research on Atrocity Justice and Human Rights Implications for Research on International Law Generalizability and Future Research Appendix A: Interviews Cited Appendix B: Coding Rules for the Atrocity Law Dataset Genocide Crimes against Humanity War Crimes Appendix C: States with Atrocity Laws Appendix D: States that Retained Pre-independence Atrocity Laws Genocide War crimes Crimes against humanity Appendix E: New Criminal Codes, 1945-2018 Appendix F: Recoding of Legal Systems References Index

"Why do countries adopt criminal legislation making it possible to prosecute government and military officials for human rights violations? Over the past thirty years, dozens of countries have prosecuted their own or other states' officials for past atrocities. Criminalizing Atrocity tells the story of the global spread of national criminal laws against atrocity crimes - genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity - laws that have helped pave the way for this remarkable trend toward greater accountability. It traces the early 20th-century origins of national atrocity laws to a group of influential European criminal law scholars and explains the global patterns by which they have since spread. The book shows that understanding why countries criminalize atrocities requires understanding how they do so. In many cases, criminalization has not been the result of concerted government initiative, but of inconspicuous choices made by technocratic legal experts who have been delegated authority to draft large-scale reforms to countries' criminal codes. Drawing on research in comparative law and norm diffusion, Criminalizing Atrocity explains how such reform projects prompt technocratic drafters to select legal ideas, like atrocity laws, that have been endorsed by their professional communities and deemed by drafters to be important features of a "modern" criminal code. To test this argument, Criminalizing Atrocity draws on a range of original quantitative and qualitative data, including in-depth case studies of Guatemala, Colombia, Poland, and the Maldvies, and a new, comprehensive dataset tracking the global spread of atrocity laws since Word War II. The book's findings highlight the importance of professional communities in the modern renaissance of atrocity justice and the domestication of international legal norms"--