The Unresolved Struggle for International Criminal Accountability

This chapter rejects the view that the anti-aggression norm affirmed by the Pact of Paris, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the UN Charter “remade the world” in a manner that reduced the relevance of intergovernmental wars to the conduct of international relations. It argues that geopolitical primacy of dominant states persists, which has rendered impotent the anti-aggression norm, and related efforts to impose individual criminal accountability in war/peace contexts. The unfortunate result is that international warfare has remained integral to the Westphalian framework of world order. For this reason, the anti-aggression norm has not had a transformative impact, but has led to a variety of accommodating developments, such as “impunity,” “victor’s justice,” and “double standards.” Only transnational civil society initiatives, such as peoples’ tribunals, take the anti-aggression norm and the guidance of the Nuremberg Principles in a manner that aspires to remake the world. Such a dramatic overcoming of war seems to depend on a movement from below, not reforms from above by governments or through the United Nations.