Foreword: symposium on redefining international criminal law.

PositionSYMPOSIUM

This special issue of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology brings together contributions from international law practitioners and scholars. The Articles in this Symposium explore a broad range of international criminal law questions, and offer new interpretations of, and new solutions to, pressing problems in the field.

The Symposium begins with a comprehensive Article by Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni in which he discusses the role of non-state actors in international and domestic conflicts. Professor Bassiouni offers a proposal to reduce collateral damage to civilians during armed conflict by demanding increased individual and collective compliance with international humanitarian law.

The remainder of the Symposium addresses three key questions in international criminal law: What acts constitute crimes punishable under international criminal law? How may those responsible for such crimes be apprehended and detained for prosecution? And how, and by whom, may such prosecutions be conducted?

Three Authors offer proposals for reinterpreting the existing jurisprudence that defines the reach of international criminal law. Professor Gregory Gordon argues that, notwithstanding significant obstacles, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be prosecuted for direct and public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Daniel Greenfield, Symposium Editor, presents an argument that the failure by international jurists to appreciate that complicity in genocide is a standalone crime leaves a gaping void in international criminal law thereby providing unwarranted sanctuary to those who facilitate genocide. Professor William Schabas makes a case for the revival of state policy as a predicate element to the prosecution of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Professor Douglass Cassel addresses the detention of suspected terrorists for security purposes, and argues that if preventive detention is to be permitted at all, its inherent threat to liberty must be appreciated, its use kept to an absolute minimum, and the European model limiting such detentions followed.

Two Articles in the Symposium focus on the International Criminal Court. Professor David Scheffer and Ashley Cox examine the constitutional issues that would pertain to...

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