Crime of Genocide and State Responsibility: Judgment of the International Court of Justice on Bosnia-Herzegovina v. Serbia-Montenegro Case

Abstract

Genocide, as an act and a violation of law, place at the top of the hierarchy of crimes and is qualified as crime of crimes. Essentially, being evaluated within the frame of international law, this crime gradually has been come within the scope of the national law. Either the conception or the crime of genocide was composed because of the massacres executed during the WWII, mainly. The basic legal arrangement about the crime was passed at 9 December 1948 and come into effect at 12 January 1951 named United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Convention is obliged the states on the prevention and the punishment of the crime of genocide. Since international criminal courts/tribunals are restricted by the principle of individual criminal responsibility and the Convention incurs the obligation on states, the violation of the Convention causes the responsibility of states. This article, under the light of the conceptional and legal frame, discusses the obligations and responsibilities incur by the Convention and the dramatic judgment of the ICJ, in short, the place and situation of crime of genocide and state responsibility at the legal texts and international jurisprudences.

Keywords

International Crimes, Crime of Genocide, State Responsibility, International Court of Justice, the Case.

Citation

Değer, Ozan, “Crime of Genocide and State Responsibility: Judgment of the International Court of Justice on Bosnia-Herzegovina v. Serbia-Montenegro Case”, International Relations, Volume 6, Issue 22 (Summer 2009), pp. 61-95.

Affiliations

• Ozan Değer, Research Assistant, Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of International Relations