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This book offers a multidisciplinary examination of the international crimes committed in the Russia-Ukraine War, and the challenges of their prosecution and documentation.As the largest international armed conflict in Europe since World War II, Russia's war against Ukraine has provoked strong reactions and questions about the post-1945 world order, the utility of the war, and the effectiveness of international criminal justice. Throughout the chapters in this volume, scholars and legal practitioners from Canada, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, the UK, and the United States present the results of interdisciplinary research, insights from the perspective of other post-communist states, and first-hand expertise from directly working on the documentation and prosecution of these crimes. This offers a broader picture of post-Cold War relations and sheds light on the roots and nature of the war and the importance of regional approaches. The chapters also present some possible responses to the crimes committed in the conflict, with a focus on a victims-centered approach to transitional justice.This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of international criminal and humanitarian law, security studies, peace and conflict studies, and Eastern European history.

This book explores the duty to investigate potential violations of the law during armed conflict, and does so under international humanitarian law (IHL), international human rights law (IHRL), and their interplay. Through a meticulous comparative legal analysis, it maps out the scope and contents of investigative obligations. On the basis of general international law, it also develops and applies a novel and more broadly applicable step-by-step methodology for resolving issues of interplay between both legal regimes. In doing so, this study clarifies the scope of application and contents of investigative obligations under both legal regimes, as well as for situations to which both apply. The book finds that the oft-heard narrative that to require States to conduct human rights investigations during armed conflict would be wholly unrealistic in light of the realities of hostilities is unfounded and in need of revision.

Across the world, mass graves, often containing a multitude of human remains, are sites of human loss, suffering and unimaginable acts of cruelty. While no one mass grave or its investigation is the same, all mass graves contain evidence that is essential to the realisation of justice and accountability goals for victims, affected communities, states in transition and the international community.This book tactfully examines this sensitive topic, demonstrating how mass grave investigations can be highly complex, context-specific, lengthy and expensive processes, requiring significant planning, coordination, expertise and resources. The book analyses the various processes involved in mass grave investigation from a number of disciplinary perspectives and a variety of geographical, cultural and political contexts, including Bosnia, Guatemala, Libya, Nepal and Rwanda. Chapters feature expert contributions from voices in the fields of forensic sciences, advocacy and the judiciary, along with world-leading international legal expertise on mass graves, their protection and investigation.This timely book will be an ideal resource for practitioners and academics in the fields of international criminal law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law and transitional justice. Students interested in forensic archaeology, anthropology, fact-finding and human rights investigations will also find this a stimulating read.

In the midst of the Second World War, the Allies acknowledged Germany's ongoing programme of extermination. In the Shadow of the Holocaust examines the struggle to attain post-war justice and prosecution. Focusing on Poland's engagement with the United Nations War Crimes Commission, it analyses the different ways that the Polish Government in Exile (based in London from 1940) agitated for an Allied response to German atrocities. Michael Fleming shows that jurists associated with the Government in Exile made significant contributions to legal debates on war crimes and, along with others, paid attention to German crimes against Jews. By exploring the relationship between the UNWCC and the Polish War Crimes Office under the authority of the Polish Government in Exile and later, from the summer of 1945, the Polish Government in Warsaw, Fleming provides a new lens through which to examine the early stages of the Cold War.

M Cherif Bassiouni was a towering figure in international law. He was personally connected to some of the most historically relevant moments of the past century: the Suez War; the Camp David Accords; the fall of Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya and the establishment of the International Criminal Court. A true global citizen – raised in Egypt, educated in Europe and emigrated to the United States – his life cut across cultures and religions. This fascinating memoir gives an immediate and personal eye-witness account of the operation of international events during a tumultuous period.

“Looks at more recent genocide through the eyes of a British detective who spent time investigating Bosnian war crimes... fascinating insight.” —FiretrenchFor over ten years he was first detective on the scene when a murder was committed in south London. In the confusion and horror of the crime scene he identified the forensic clues that would later be needed to convict the killer in the calm and measured atmosphere of the Old Bailey; calling out the necessary experts from pathologists to ballistics specialists; protecting the scene against contamination. One slip and a case would crumble; one moment of inspiration and the Yard would have its man. He was the natural choice when the UN were looking for an experienced detective to create a trail of evidence linking the mass graves of Bosnia to the people who ordered the worst war crimes seen in Europe since the Second World War. From the Flying Squad to Investigating War Crimes tells of the rise of forensic evidence against the true story backdrop of a detective who has spent a career at the front line in the war against murder—the ultimate crime. It traces the development of forensic science and techniques from the days of the fingerprint to the battery of tests now available to homicide investigators. It is told in the no nonsense style of a pioneer cop who has seen the worst that human beings can do to each other.“The extraordinary autobiography of an extraordinary man who gathered evidence against the most heinous criminals.” —Books Monthly

The war that broke out in the former Yugoslavia at the end of the twentieth century unleashed unspeakable acts of violence committed against defenseless civilians, including a grizzly mass murder at an Ovčara pig farm in 1991. An international tribunal was set up to try the perpetrators of crimes such as this, and one of the accused was Slavko Dokmanović, who at the time was the mayor of a local town. Vladimír Dzuro, a criminal detective from Prague, was one of the investigators charged with discovering what happened on that horrific night at Ovčara. The story Dzuro presents here, drawn from his daily notes, is devastating. It was a time of brutal torture, random killings, and the disappearance of innocent people. Dzuro provides a gripping account of how he and a handful of other investigators picked up the barest of leads that eventually led them to the gravesite where they exhumed the bodies. They were able to track down Dokmanović, only to find that taking him into custody was a different story altogether. The politics that led to the war hindered justice once it ended. Without any thoughts of risk to their own personal safety, Dzuro and his colleagues were determined to bring Dokmanović to justice. In addition to the story of the pursuit and arrest of Dokmanović, The Investigator provides a realistic picture of the war crime investigations that led to the successful prosecution of a number of war criminals. Visit warcrimeinvestigator.com for more information or watch a book trailer.

In The Roles and Functions of Atrocity-Related United Nations Commissions of Inquiry in the International Legal Order, Catherine Harwood explores the turn to international law in atrocity-related United Nations commissions of inquiry and their navigation of considerations of principle (the legal) and pragmatism (the political), to discern their identity in the international legal order. The book traces the inquiry process from establishment and interpretation of the mandate to legal analysis, production of findings and recommendations. The research finds that the turn to international law fundamentally shapes the roles and functions of UN atrocity inquiries. Inquiries continuously navigate between realms of law and politics, with the equilibrium shifting in different moments and contexts.

In Investigating Civilian Casualties in Time of Armed Conflict and Belligerent Occupation Alon Margalit discusses the appropriate State response to civilian casualties caused by its armed forces. Various legal and practical challenges, arising when investigating the fatal consequences of the use of force, are examined through the practice of the US, the UK, Canada and Israel during military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and the occupied Palestinian territory. Alon Margalit considers this topical and sensitive issue within a broader context, namely the public scrutiny of State behaviour and influence of human rights law during armed conflict. The debate over the scope of the duty to investigate reflects competing approaches looking to (re)shape the balance between military necessity and humanitarian considerations.

This book represents the first multi-disciplinary introduction to the study of war crimes trials and investigations. It introduces readers to the numerous disciplines engaged with this complex subject, including: Forensic Anthropology, Economics and Anthropometrics, Legal History, Violence Studies, International Criminal Justice, International Relations, and Moral Philosophy. The contributors are experts in their respective fields and the chapters highlight each discipline's major trends, debates, methods and approaches to mass atrocity, genocide, and crimes against humanity, as well as their interactions with adjacent disciplines. Case studies illustrate how the respective disciplines work in practice, including examples from the Allied Hunger Blockade, WWII, the Guatemalan and Spanish Civil Wars, the Former Yugoslavia, and Uganda. Including bibliographical essays to offer readers crucial orientation when approaching the specialist literature in each case, this edited collection equips readers with what they need to know in order to navigate a complex, and until now, deeply fragmented field. A diverse and interdisciplinary body of research, this book will be indispensable reading for scholars of war crimes.

Hiding in Plain Sight tells the story of the global effort to apprehend the world's most wanted fugitives. Beginning with the flight of tens of thousands of Nazi war criminals and their collaborators after World War II, then moving on to the question of justice following the recent Balkan wars and the Rwandan genocide, and ending with the establishment of the International Criminal Court and America's pursuit of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11, the book explores the range of diplomatic and military strategies—both successful and unsuccessful—that states and international courts have adopted to pursue and capture war crimes suspects. It is a story fraught with broken promises, backroom politics, ethical dilemmas, and daring escapades—all in the name of international justice and human rights.Hiding in Plain Sight is a companion book to the public television documentary Dead Reckoning: Postwar Justice from World War II to The War on Terror. For more information about the documentary, visit www.pbs.org/wnet/dead-reckoning/. And for more information about the Human Rights Center, visit hrc.berkeley.edu.

‘Operational incidents'denotes misconduct, misdeeds or mishaps that occur on military operations, whether concerning the mistreatment of enemy soldiers, offences against civilians, conflict of varying levels within one's own forces, or accidents that lead to injury or death within a theatre of operations. Alleged breaches of IHL or the disciplinary regulations of particular militaries require at the very least an initial assessment to determine the facts and then, if warranted, a more substantial investigation. The need for robust investigations, however, is not always matched by the will and the ability to undertake them. There is at last a sufficient body of experience on which we can reflect, in this volume, on such investigations, their challenges, and their likely evolution.