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Raphael Lemkin and the international debate on the punishment of war crimes (1919–1948)

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14623520500349902

1469-9494

Daniel Marc Segesser, Myriam Gessler,

International Law and Human Rights

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Daniel Marc Segesser, "The international debate on the punishment of war crimes during the Balkan Wars and the First World War," 2004 Annual Meeting Session Papers of the American Historical Association (Ann Arbor: UMI, 2004). 2. For its report, see: Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and the Enforcement of Penalties, "Report presented to the Preliminary Peace Conference," American Journal of International Law, Vol 14, 1920, pp 95–154. 3. Gary Jonathan Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), pp 75–80, 83–88, 135–136; James F. Willis, Prologue to Nuremberg: The Politics and Diplomacy of Punishing War Criminals of the First World War (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982), pp 65–86, 177–181. 4. Johann Caspar Bluntschli, Das moderne Völkerrecht der civilisirten Staaten, 2nd edn (Nördlingen: Beck'sche Buchhandlung, 1872), pp 358–359. 5. Commission on the Responsibility, op cit, pp 114–115; United Nations War Crimes Commission (hereafter UNWCC), History of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (London: HMSO, 1948), pp 34–35. On the terminology, see: Gerry J. Simpson. "War crimes: a critical introduction," Timothy L. H. McCormack and Gerry J. Simpson, eds, The Law of War Crimes: National and International Approaches (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1997), pp 1–30; Howard S. Levie, "Violations of human rights in time of war as war crimes," Yoram Dinstein and Mala Tabory, eds, War Crimes in International Law (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1996), pp 123–127; M. Cherif Bassiouni, Crimes Against Humanity in International Criminal Law, 2nd revised edn (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999), pp 60–82. 6. Segesser, op cit. 7. On the Leipzig trials, see: Gerd Hankel, Die Leipziger Prozesse: Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen und ihre strafrechtliche Verfolgung nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2003). On the trials in Constantinople, see: Taner Akçam, Armenien und der Völkermord: Die Istanbuler Prozesse und die türkische Nationalbewegung (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1996). 8. Hans-Heinrich Jescheck, Die Verantwortlichkeit der Staatsorgane nach Völkerstrafrecht: Eine Studie zu den Nürnberger Prozessen (Bonn: Ludwig Röhrscheid Verlag, 1952), p 89. A closer analysis of the debate will be included into the forthcoming Habilitationsschrift of Daniel Marc Segesser on the international debate on the punishment of war crimes, 1872–1945. 9. On the Russian persecution of Jews during their retreat from advancing German forces, see: Peter Gatrell, A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia during World War I (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), pp 16–26; Mark Levene, "Frontiers of genocide: Jews in the Eastern war zones, 1914–1920 and 1941," in Panikos Panayi, ed., Minorities in Wartime: National and Racial Groupings in Europe, North America, and Australia during the Two World Wars (Oxford: Berg, 1993), pp 92–98; Ulrich Sieg, "Judentum," in Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich and Irina Renz, eds, Enzyklopädie Erster Weltkrieg (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2003), p 599. 10. New York Public Library: Raphael Lemkin Papers 1947–1959, Series V: Writings—Autobiography, pp 17–18. See also Steven L. Jacobs. "Lemkin and the Armenian genocide," in Richard G. Hovannisian, ed., Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Confronting the Armenian Genocide (New Brunswick: Transaction, 2003), p 126, and Gatrell, op cit, pp 150–154. 11. William Korey: "Raphael Lemkin: 'the unofficial man'," Midstream, Vol 35, No 5, 1989, p 46. 12. Maurice Travers, Le Droit Pénal International et sa Mise en Oeuvre en Temps de Paix et en Temps de Guerre, 5 vols (Paris: Receuil Sirey, 1920–1922), Vol 1, pp 61–66 and Vol 4, pp 618–619. 13. See Document 4a in Benjamin B. Ferencz, An International Criminal Court: A Step toward World Peace—A Documentary History and Analysis, 2 vols (London: Oceana, 1980), Vol 1, pp 193–224; Jescheck, op cit, p 90; Heiko Ahlbrecht, Geschichte der völkerrechtlichen Strafgerichtsbarkeit im 20. Jahrhundert (Baden–Baden: Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1999), pp 46–47. 14. Ferencz, op cit, pp 202–210; Jescheck, op cit, pp 90–91. 15. Ahlbrecht, op cit, p 48; Ferencz, op cit, pp 239–243; Jescheck, op cit, p 91. 16. Hugh H. Bellot, "War crimes and war criminals," Canadian Law Times, Vol 36, 1916, pp 754–768, 876–886; ibid, "War crimes and war criminals," Canadian Law Times, Vol 37, 1917, pp 9–22; ibid, "War crimes: their prevention and punishment," Transaction of the Grotius Society, Vol 2, 1917, pp 31–55; ibid: "War crimes, their prevention and punishment," Nineteenth Century and After, Vol 80, 1916, pp 636–660. 17. Hugh H. Bellot, A Permanent International Criminal Court, International Law Association, Report of the Thirty-First Conference (Buenos Aires 24th August–30th August 1922) (London: Sweet&Maxwell, 1923), pp 63–80. 18. Bellot, op cit, pp 80–86. 19. Amongst the critics of Bellot were Graham Bower, Charles-Henry Butler, Ludwik Erlich, John Hinkley and John Fischer Williams, as well as James Leslie Brierly, who although present did not voice his criticism in Stockholm. International Law Association, Report of the Thirty-Third Conference (Stockholm September 8th to 13th, 1924) (London: Sweet&Maxwell, 1925), pp 93–110 and James Leslie Brierly, "Do we need an International Criminal Court?" British Yearbook of International Law, Vol 8, 1927, pp 81–88. 20. International Law Association, Report of the Thirty-Fourth Conference (Vienna August 5th to 11th, 1926) (London: Sweet&Maxwell, 1927), pp 106–225, 279–309; Hellmuth von Weber: Internationale Strafgerichtsbarkeit (Berlin: Ferd. Dümmlers Verlag, 1934), pp 11–14; Jescheck, op cit, pp 93–97. 21. Jescheck, op cit, pp 97, 113–114; Weber, op cit, p 14. 22. Ahlbrecht, op cit, pp 49–50; Jescheck, op cit, pp 112–113; Weber, op cit, p 47. 23. Jescheck, op cit, pp 74–75. See also: Quincy Wright, "The outlawry of war," American Journal of International Law, Vol 19, 1925, pp 76–103 and Vilho Harle, "The implementation of peace ideas: the case of outlawry of war," History of European Ideas, Vol 10, 1989, pp 677–688. 24. Ahlbrecht, op cit, p 50; Jescheck, op cit, p 113. 25. Jescheck, op cit, p 97; Association Internationale de Droit Pénal, "Projet d'une Association Internationale de Droit Pénal," Revue Internationale de Droit Pénal (hereafter RIDP), Vol 1, 1924, pp 1–2. 26. For an overview, see: Jescheck, op cit, pp 97–110 and Weber, op cit, pp 14–47. A more detailed analysis of the debate will be given in the forthcoming Habilitationsschrift of Daniel Marc Segesser on the international debate on the punishment of war crimes, 1872–1945. 27. Korey, op cit, p 46. 28. Georges Sliwowski, "Le Président Emile Stanislas Rappaport," RIDP, Vol 36, 1965, pp 13–19; Alozjy Zebrowska, "Rappaport Emil Stanislaw," in Polski Slownik Biograficzny, Vol 30 (Wroclaw: Zaklad Narodowy Imienia Ossolinskich Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1987), pp 586–589. 29. Janusz Jamontt, Raphael Lemkin and Emil Stanislaw Rappaport, eds, Kodeks Karny r. 1932, 2 vols (Warzaw: Bibljoteka Prawnicza, 1932). 30. For Lemkin, see: www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/bibliography.htm (November 11, 2004), for Rappaport, see: Sliwowski, op cit, pp 15–17. 31. It is not clear when Lemkin exactly joined the two organizations, but in 1930 he already occupied the position of secretary to the Polish Commission for Criminal Legislation. Simon Sasserath, ed., Actes de la IIIe Conférence Internationale pour l' Unification du Droit Pénal (Bruxelles, 26–30 Juin 1930) (Brussels: Office de Publicité, 1931), p 11. 32. There is only one article in which Lemkin himself discussed part of this problem, but there are no indications that he disagreed with Pella and Rappaport: Raphael Lemkin, "La Protection de la Paix par le Droit Pénal Interne," RIDP, Vol 35, 1938, pp 95–126. 33. Michel Potulicki, ed., Actes de la Ière Conférence d' Unification du Droit Pénal (Varsovie, 1er–5 Novembre 1927) (Paris: Librairie du Recueil Sirey, 1929), pp 1–7. 34. Potulicki, op cit, pp 38–41. 35. Potulicki, op cit, pp 59–67, 116–130. 36. Sasserath, op cit, pp 43–48, 114–117, 173–175, 194; Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, ed., Actes de la IVe Conférence Internationale pour l' Unification du Droit Pénal (Paris, 27–30 Décembre 1931) (Paris: Librairie du Recueil Sirey, 1933), pp 48–68, 133–152, 253–264. 37. Jean-André Roux, "Terrorisme," in Manuel López-Rey, ed., Actes de la Vème Conférence Internationale pour l' Unification du Droit Pénal (Madrid 14–20 Octobre 1933) (Paris: A. Pedone, 1935), pp 42–47. 38. Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, Les Principes Modernes du Droit Pénal International (Paris: Recueil Sirey, 1928), pp 135–166; Vespasien Pella, La Criminalité Collective des États et le Droit Pénal de l' Avenir (Bucarest: Imprimérie de l' État, 1925), pp 157–159; Emil Stanislaw Rappaport, Le Problème de l' Unification Internationale du Droit Pénal (Warzaw: Revue Pénitentiaire de Pologne, 1929), pp 19–21. 39. Raphael Lemkin, "Les Actes constituant un danger general (interétatique) considerés comme delits du Droit des Gens," in López-Rey, ed., op cit, pp 48–56. For an English translation, made by James T. Fussell, see: www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/madrid-1933-english.htm (November 11, 2004). A short version of Lemkin's proposal was also published in German: Raphael Lemkin, "Akte der Barbarei und des Vandalismus als delicta juris gentium," Internationales Anwaltsblatt, Vol 6, 1933, pp 117–119. 40. Lemkin, op cit, p 56. 41. López-Rey, op cit, pp 241–242. 42. López-Rey, op cit, pp 16–20, 143, 243; Donnedieu de Vabres, op cit, p 145. 43. Jescheck, op cit, pp 117–120; UNWCC, op cit, p 440; Timothy L. H. McCormack, "From Sun Tzu to Sixth Committee: the evolution of an international criminal law regime," McCormack and Simpson, eds, op cit, p 54. On the Association International de Droit Pénal, see: Jean-André Roux, "Le Projet de Convention Internationale pour la Répression des Crimes présentant un Danger Public," RIDP, Vol 12, 1935, pp 99–130 and Quintiliano Saldaña, "Le Terrorisme," RIDP, Vol 13, 1936, pp 26–37. 44. Megalos Caloyanni, "Commission de Rédaction d' un Projet concernant les Infractions et leurs Sanctions," RDIP, Vol 12, 1935, pp 337–347. 45. Ferencz, op cit, pp 269–371; Jescheck, op cit, p 118. 46. Vespasien Pella, "Plan d'un Code Répressif Mondial," RIDP, Vol 12, 1935, pp 348–369; ibid, op cit, pp 240–257, 271–277; Ferencz, op cit, pp 373–398; Jescheck, op cit, pp 118–120. 47. Charles B. Ingwersen and Henrik Sachs, eds, Actes de la VIème Conférence Internationale pour l'Unification du Droit Pénal (Copenhague 31 Aoút–3 Septembre 1935) (Paris: A. Pedone, 1938), pp 147–209, 369–413. 48. Ferencz, op cit, pp 378, 387–388, 397–398. 49. On Rappaport, see: Sliwowski, op cit, pp 16–17 and Zebrowska, op cit, p 588; on Lemkin, see: Korey, op cit, pp 46–47. 50. Korey, op cit, p 46. 51. Jean-André Roux, "Editorial," RIDP, Vol 17, 1946, pp 1–2; Emil Stanislaw Rappaport, "Vingt Ans Après," RIDP, Vol 17, 1946, pp 3–5; Simon Sasserath, "Le Président Vespasien Pella," RIDP, Vol 23, 1952, pp 12–13; Dominique Gros, "Le Statut des Juifs et les Manuels en Usage dans les Facultés de Droit (1940–1944)," in Philippe Braud, ed., La Violence Politique dans les Démocraties Européennes Occidentales (Paris: Éditions L'Harmattan, 1993), pp 144–152. 52. Ernst Joseph Cohn, "The problem of war crimes to-day," Transactions of the Grotius Society, Vol 26, 1941, p 141. Cohn had presented his ideas to the Grotius Society on May 29, 1940. 53. UNWCC, op cit, pp 99–101; Hans Kelsen, Peace through Law (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1944), pp 71–75; Albert Levy, "The law and procedure of war crimes trials," American Political Science Review, Vol 37, 1943, pp 1067–1068. 54. Sheldon Glueck, War Criminals: Their Prosecution and Punishment (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944), pp 37–38; George A. Finch, "Retribution for war crimes," American Journal of International Law, Vol 37, 1943, pp 81–88. See also William B. Simons, "The jurisdictional bases of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg," in George Ginsburgs and Vladimir N. Kudriavtsev, eds, The Nuremberg Trial and International Law (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1990), pp 45–50. 55. Glueck, op cit, pp 37–45, 56–62; Finch, op cit, pp 85–88. 56. Manfred Lachs, War Crimes: An Attempt to Define the Issues (London: Stevens & Sons, 1945), pp 100–101; Georg Lelewer "The definition of war crimes," Central European Observer, Vol 21, 1944, p 116; Vaclav Benes, "The question of the definition of war crimes," Central European Observer, Vol 20, 1943, p 282; Aaron Naumovitch Trainin, Hitlerite Responsibility under Criminal Law (London: Hutchinson, 1945), pp 37–42, 71–78. 57. Daniel Marc Segesser, "On the road to total retribution? The international debate on the punishment of war crimes, 1872–1945," in Roger Chickering, Stig Förster and Bernd Greiner, eds, A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp 362–370; Arieh Kochavi, Prelude to Nuremberg: Allied War Crimes Policy and the Question of Punishment (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), pp 95–171; Bass, op cit, pp 147–203. 58. UNWCC, op cit, pp 87–118; Jescheck, op cit, pp 121–137; Kochavi, op cit, pp 27–62. 59. Segesser, op cit, pp 364–370, 372. 60. Jescheck, op cit, pp 137–140; Segesser, op cit, pp 367–368. 61. Korey, op cit, p 46. 62. Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation—Analysis of Government—Proposals for Redress (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, 1944), reviewed by Arthur Leon Horniker in Military Affairs: Journal of the American Military Institute, Vol 9, No 1, 1945, pp 69–73, by John Mervyn Jones in British Yearbook of International Law,Vol 22, 1945, pp 313–314, by Arthur K. Kuhn in American Journal of International Law, Vol 39, 1945, pp 360–362, by Vlastimil Kybal in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol 239, 1945, pp 190–192, by Ramsay Moran in Virginia Law Review, Vol 31, 1945, pp 730–733, and Melchior Palyi in American Journal of Sociology, Vol 51, 1946, pp 496–497. 63. Foreword of George A. Finch to Lemkin, op cit, pp vii–viii. 64. Lemkin, op cit, p ix. 65. Lemkin, op cit, pp x–xi, 7–78. 66. See Myriam Gessler, "Die Singularität des Holocaust und die vergleichende Genozidforschung: Empirische und theoretische Untersuchung zu einem aktuellen Thema der Geschichtswissenschaft," unpublished Lizentiatsthesis, University of Berne, Berne, 2000, pp 20–22. 67. Lemkin, op cit, p 79. 68. James Wilford Garner, International Law and the World War, 2 vols (New York: Longmans, Green, 1920); Commission on the Responsibility, pp 95–154; Lemkin, op cit, pp 48–56. 69. Lemkin, op cit, p 79–82. 70. Ibid, pp 90–95. 71. Ibid, pp 99–264. 72. Ibid, pp 267–635. 73. Ibid, p xiv. 74. On Morgenthau's ideas for a post-war Germany, see: Bass, op cit, pp 157–169; Bernd Greiner, Die Morgenthau-Legende: Zur Geschichte eines umstrittenen Plans (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1995), pp 169–184; Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp 795–797. 75. Lemkin, op cit, pp xiii–xiv. 76. Kochavi, op cit, pp 201–217; Segesser, op cit, p 372. 77. Raphael Lemkin, "The legal case against Hitler," The Nation, Vol 160, No 8, 1945, pp 205–207, 268–270; ibid, "Genocide—a modern crime," Free World, Vol 9, No 4, 1945, pp 39–43. On the debate on war crimes trials in early 1945, see Kochavi, op cit, pp 201–222. 78. William B. Simons, "The jurisdictional bases of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg," in George Ginsburgs und Vladimir N. Kudriavtsev, eds, The Nuremberg Trial and International Law (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1990), pp 41–45; Bradley F. Smith, The American Road to Nuremberg: The Documentary Record 1944–1945 (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1982), pp 142, 212–220; Kochavi, op cit, pp 222–230. 79. Robert E. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1983), pp 11–12. 80. Korey, op cit, p 47; Bernhard F. Hamilton, A Note on Professor Lemkin's Work in London Culminating in the Nuremberg Indictment of October 18, 1945 at www.genocidewatch.org/LKF/18oct2000.htm (November 5, 2004). 81. Count 3 (A) of the Indictment. See: www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/count3.htm (November 5, 2004). In the German text the word Genocide was translated as "Massenmord," of which the equivalent in English would be "mass murder": Der Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem internationalen Militärgerichtshof: 14. November 1945—1. Oktober 1946, 42 vols (Nuremberg: International Military Tribunal, 1947–1949), Vol 1, p 47. 82. Korey, op cit, p 47; Jacobs, op cit, p 133. 83. Raphael Lemkin, "Genocide," American Scholar, Vol 15, No 2, 1946, pp 227–230. 84. Raphael Lemkin, "Genocide: a new international crime: punishment and prevention," RIDP, Vol 17, 1946, pp 360–370; ibid, "Le Genocide," RIDP, Vol 17, 1946, pp 371–386. The latter was a French translation of Lemkin's chapter on genocide from Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. 85. Lemkin, op cit, p 363. 86. Korey, op cit, pp 45, 47. On the genesis of the Genocide Convention, see: William Schabas, Genocide in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp 51–81. 87. Korey, op cit, p 45.