Title: The State of War Crimes Following the Israeli-Hezbollah War
Abstract: This article examines the state of “war crimes” today by thinking through why the prosecution of war crimes has been frustrated for the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War in Lebanon. Even though the international machinery for trying war crimes has been set up - above all, the ICC - and the means of documenting and publicizing such crimes have expanded and become widely accessible globally, it is now nearly impossible to prosecute major geopolitical perpetrators on the world stage. The article focuses on legal issues regarding the conduct of war (jus in bello): how the threat of prosecution due to the use of excessive violence might affect the different tactical and strategic “self-interests” of the belligerents. Finally, it makes an argument in favour of when principles of proportionality (that the violence deployed was excessive and disproportionate to the threat) may trump principles of equity (that both parties deserving of punishment must be prosecuted), and assesses the political efficacy of prosecutions in this case. This analysis brings to light several paradoxes in the field of international justice generally, or international humanitarian law more specifically, and suggests why there is a certain contemporary impasse in the prosecution of war crimes.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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