GC: n
S: ICRC – https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc_861_gutierrez.pdf (last access: 21 November 2014); RULAC – http://www.geneva-academy.ch/RULAC/international_criminal_law.php (last access: 21 November 2014).
N: 1. international (adj): 1780, apparently coined by Jeremy Bentham from inter- + national.
In communist jargon, as a noun and with a capital i, it is short for International Working Men’s Association, the first of which was founded in London by Marx in 1864.
criminal (adj): early 15c., from Middle French criminel (11c.), from Latin criminalis “pertaining to crime,” from crimen (genitive criminis); Preserves the Latin –n-. Criminal law (or criminal justice) distinguished from civil in English at least since late 15c.
law (n): Old English lagu (plural laga, comb. form lah-) “law, ordinance, rule, regulation; district governed by the same laws,” from Old Norse lagu “law,” collective plural of lag “layer, measure, stroke,” literally “something laid down or fixed,” from Proto-Germanic lagan “put, lay”.
2. International criminal law is the part of public international law that deals with the criminal responsibility of individuals for international crimes.
3. A distinction can be made between international crimes which are based on international customary law and therefore apply universally and crimes resulting from specific treaties which criminalize certain conduct and require the contracting states to implement legislation for the criminal prosecution of this conduct in their domestic legal system.
4. The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials signaled the birth of present-day international criminal law, i.e., the prosecution of individuals for international crimes before international tribunals.
5. In the early nineties of the previous century international criminal law received a major stimulus with the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda by the United Nations Security Council.
6. Also the creation of various internationalized or mixed criminal courts and the proposals of the International Law Commission, which resulted in the creation of the International Criminal Court in 2002, contributed to the rapid development of international criminal law during the last two decades.
7. The current system of international criminal law works through international ad hoc tribunals, internationalised or mixed tribunals, the International Criminal Court as well as national courts (military tribunals and ordinary courts).
S: 1 & 2. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=international (last access: 30 October 2014); http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=criminal&searchmode=none (last access: 21 November 2014); http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=law&searchmode=none (last access: 21 November 2014). 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7. PPL – http://www.peacepalacelibrary.nl/research-guides/international-criminal-law/international-criminal-law/ (last access: 30 October 2014). 8. RULAC – http://www.geneva-academy.ch/RULAC/international_criminal_law.php (last access: 17 November 2014).
SYN: ICL, international penal law.
S: TERMIUMPLUS
CR: crime against humanity, intergovernmental organisation, self-defence
