How the meaning of 'war crimes' has changed—and why it will be hard to prosecute Russia for war crimes in Ukraine
was the foundational document of that proceeding. It sets forth all of the charges against the Nazis that will be pursued. And so that’s where I think it really starts. This is really where the modern definition of war crimes comes into being.
How loaded is the term “war crime”? Has its definition depended on what certain countries see as a war crime, versus what other countries see as a war crime? It’s really not that controversial. There’s a fairly secure anchorage for it now in international law. Where you find controversy erupting is typically over theof international criminal law. When people are prosecuted, like leaders of countries or military commanders, they oftentimes come from African countries or countries that are less powerful.
It’s hard to get to that point. Another traditional kind of criticism of war crimes is that—other than the U.N., and bodies created by the U.N. like the International Criminal Court, or some of these ad hoc tribunals—we just don’t have a true international police that would arrest offenders. Defining war crimes is not so much the issue anymore. It’s prosecuting them actually, administering justice, that seems to be the primary obstacle.
The most important thing would be documenting what’s happening. The most critical thing in any sort of conflict involving allegations of humanitarian violations is to document what’s happening. And only after we’ve assembled as much evidence as we can are we in a position then to determine what should be done. Calling for war crime trials right now, it might be a little premature. The dust hasn’t settled.
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