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Blumenthal, David A and McCormac, Timothy L H, ed. The Legacy of Nuremberg: Civilising Influence or Institutionalised Vengeance? International Humanitarian Law Series, 20. Leiden, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2008.

Abstract: The volume consists of a series of diverse and insightful papers, each of which deals with a different aspect of the legacy of Nuremberg, written from the unique perspective of its particular author. Some papers constitute academic critiques, examining and assessing in detail a specific aspect of the legacy of Nuremberg in light of the current state of knowledge in the field of transitional and criminal justice. Other papers are written from a practitioner’s perspective with a more discursive style, exploring aspects of Nuremberg from a more direct and personal experience with its legacy. The volume is divided into five separate parts each focusing on a different aspects of trials:

– The first part of the volume has two ground-breaking contributions focussed primarily upon little-known aspects of the historical context of the Nuremberg Trial.

– The second part of the volume includes three essays which all argue for the fundamental importance of criminal responsibility for egregious international crimes.

– The third part of the volume includes two essays on selected aspects of the influence of the jurisprudence in the Trial on the subsequent development of the substantive law

– The proliferation of new ‘justice’ institutions to assist the transition of societies from extended violence to more peaceful existence is a common theme throughout many of the contributions to the volume. In the fourth part of the book three essays focus in more detail on selected aspects of this theme.
– The final part of the book has an Australian national focus on the implementation of international criminal law. After all, if the legacy of Nuremberg is as pervasive as the contributions in the volume suggest, then evidence should be palpable even in the Antipodes

Ntoubandi, Faustin Z. Amnesty for Crimes Against Humanity under International Law. Leiden, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007.

Abstract: Drawing on crystallizing trends in State’s practice in respect of amnesty, this book provides a comprehensive legal framework within which grants of amnesty can be reconciled with the duty to prosecute core crimes under international law.

Goldstone, R J. For Humanity: Reflections of a War Crimes Investigator. The Castle Lectures in Ethics, Politics and Economics. London: Yale University Press, 2000.

Abstract: The strength of this book lies less in its words than in the experiences of the author Goldstone, a South African who chaired the commission that investigated atrocities committed under apartheid and also chief prosecutor of tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In this series of lectures, originally presented at Yale, Goldstone first traces his own rise from liberal student activist to lawyer to justice on one of South Africa’s highest courts. During this time, he visited thousands of South African prisoners (who had committed no crime and were detained without trial) and attempted to convince “unsympathetic police officers to adopt a more humane attitude toward the detainees.” The bulk of this dryly written book, however, is devoted to his work on the South African commission that bore his name and the two war tribunals. In all three cases he naturally defends the role of international law in holding human rights violators accountable. Goldstone occasionally abandons his generally amiable tone for some criticism of the Clinton administration and former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. But a more critical approach to the war crimes tribunals (which have been accused by others of ineffectiveness) might have better supported his claim that the U.N. has “sent out messages to would-be war criminals that the international community is no longer prepared to be committed without the threat of retribution.”

Schabas, William A. The UN International Criminal Tribunals: The Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Abstract: This book is a guide to the law that applies in the three international criminal tribunals, for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, set up by the United Nations during the period 1993 to 2002 to deal with atrocities and human rights abuses committed during conflict in those countries. Building on the work of an earlier generation of war crimes courts established in the aftermath of the Second World War, the three tribunals have developed a sophisticated body of law concerning the elements of the three international crimes (genocide,crimes against humanity and war crimes), forms of participation in such crimes as well as other general principles of international criminal law, procedural matters and sentencing. The legacy of the tribunals will be indispensable as international law moves into a more advanced stage, with the creation of the International Criminal Court. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the law of the tribunals, relying on their judicial decisions as well as the drafting history of their statutes and other contemporary sources. While there is a wealth of periodical literature on specific aspects of the activities of these tribunals, this is the first comprehensive book to be published in more than a decade.

Hulme, Karen. War Torn Environment: Interpreting the Legal Threshold. International Humanitarian Law Series, 7. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2004.

Abstract: In the recent past the horrors of war have been demonstrated all too vividly. Who would have believed that after Nuremberg there would be any further need for war crimes tribunals, or for the creation of an international criminal court? But, whilst people in conflict countries suffer the mental and physical scars from military bombardment, they also suffer the silent legacy of environmental pollution. The world functions as one large ecosystem: the contamination of one element inevitably feeding into another. Pollution in peacetime has been greatly reduced, but what is the wartime cost to the environment? Wartime weaponry and tactics are strictly controlled by the principles of humanitarian law, but international law can be a slow creature. Are our militaries using weapons today that violate the current laws of armed conflict? Or need new controls be drafted to deal with the environmental, and inevitably human, consequences of modern warfare? The book seeks to analyse the issues surrounding the protection of the environment in times of armed conflict, and to pose questions as to its adequacy and efficacy. But the focus is not simply upon the interpretation of the legal provisions in isolation; instead, the analysis establishes a benchmark standard of environmental harm against which the adequacy and efficacy of the legal provisions can be measured. At the centre of the analysis are a number of case studies tackling the most modern weapons and tactics, including the legality of depleted uranium weapons and cluster bombs, the validity of striking chemical weapons facilities and oil installations, and the responsibility for explosive and non-explosive war debris.