Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice - Hardcover

Robertson, Geoffrey

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9781565845978: Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565845978 ISBN 13: 9781565845978

Publisher: New Pr, 2000

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Explains how the identification of a crime against humanity, first defined at Nuremburg, has become the key that unlocks the closed door of state sovereignty and that holds political leaders responsible for the evils they visit upon humankind.

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About the Author:

Geoffrey Robertson, QC, has appeared as counsel in many landmark human-rights cases, including the Matrix Churchill trial. He is Head of Doughty Street Chambers and Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Birkbeck College. His books include Freedom, the Individual and the Law and Media Law. He lives in London.

From Publishers Weekly:

A British lawyer long involved in human rights observations and tribunals, Robinson writes of the history and the contemporary politics of international human rights. He devotes a chapter each to the history of human rights law; the case of General Pinochet; the "Guernica Paradox" (that is, bombing in the service of human rights); the International Court; and recent events in the Balkans, East Timor, Latin America and the U.S. An unabashed supporter of international military intervention, Robinson puts individuals' rights above the right of national sovereignty. Passionate almost to a fault, he occasionally even argues that morality, the defense of human rights, should supersede the rule of international law. To his credit, he is consistently willing to criticize all sidesAand he does criticize the U.S. Congress (for what he says is its occasional desire to place U.S. interests above international human rights), U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (for what Robinson considers his occasional incompetence) and anyone who'd excuse human rights violations in the name of cultural relativism. The author's disgust with the U.N.'s inaction leads him to propose that the human rights community form a separate organization to deal with the issue. At times, Robinson's intense focus on law may blind him to important holes in his argument. But overall, this is an erudite book that adds sophistication to the debate on a crucial subject. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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