War crimes under international customary law: the historical development and the legal issues
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Date
1999
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Publisher
University of the Western cape
Abstract
War is characterizedby outburst of primitive, raw violence and has always played an important role in the history of mankind. When states or groups within a state cannot or will not settle their disagreements or differences by means of peaceful discussion, eapons are suddenly made to speak' War inevitably results in immeasurable uffering among people and in Severe damage to objects. l Despite the consequences of ar, states continue to wage wars and groups still take up weapons when they have lost hope of just treatment at the hands of the government. Facing the fact that wars will always occur, states developed a need to lay down rules that seek to mitigate the effects of war. These rules are predominantly included in international treaties. Some of these rules constitute war crimes under international customary law. This dissertation will discuss the historical development and the legal issues of war crimes under international customary law. Discussing all issues conceming war crimes would be beyond the scope of this dissertation. ln some aspects, this dissertation provides just an overview. ln short, the definition of war crimes and their applicability are discussed right at the beginning, as well as the historical development of war crimes before the 20th century. Also the topic "war crimes committed in
international conflicts" is not discussed in detail. However, the most important issues that are essential for the understanding of war crimes in general are explained and sufficient information is provided on this topic. The emphasis of this dissertation is focuses on two very important and very actual issues: War crimes committed in non-international (internal) conflicts and individual criminal responsibility for war crimes committed both in international and non-international conflicts.
Description
Magister Legum - LLM
Keywords
Raw violence, Weapons, Customary law, War crimes, lnternational Criminal Court