Title: Amnesties in the Light of Developments in International Law and the Establishment of the International Criminal Court
Abstract: Amnesties presuppose a breach of law and provide immunity or protection from punishment. Historically amnesties were invoked in relation to breaches of the laws of war and were reciprocally implemented by opposing sides in an international armed conflict. The impact of the two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century, however, had considerable implications not only for the use of amnesties, but also for their legality under international law. The scale of the First World War precipitated a new phase of unilateral amnesty for the victors and prosecutions of war criminals for the defeated aggressor states. 1 This precedent was followed after the Second World War, 2 with the establishment of the first ‘international’ 3 criminal court, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. However, the horrors perpetrated during the Second World War also prompted the development of a branch of international law aimed at recognising and protecting human rights in an attempt to prevent such atrocities being repeated.
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 142
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