How a lonely semicolon in a wartime charter continues to dictate who gets justice, and who does not.

Author:

FT Birhane
 

Summary: 

Philippe Sands’ East West Street reconstructs the personal and institutional origins of international criminal law’s two defining concepts: genocide and crimes against humanity. Sands demonstrates that these categories were not born from pure moral clarity but were forged through bureaucratic access, political bargaining, and even minor textual contingencies, most notably, a drafting dispute over a semicolon in Article 6(c) of the Nuremberg Charter, which inadvertently constrained the tribunal’s jurisdiction. This book review addresses a foundational, unresolved problem at the heart of atrocity justice, i.e. should the law primarily protect individuals as persons, or communities as collective groups? The book review contends that this unresolved tension has profound contemporary consequences. It highlights Ethiopia’s unique domestic legal framework, which controversially expanded genocide to include political groups, illustrating how international norms are selectively received and adapted. Ultimately, the book review argues that Sands’ work serves as a critical methodological warning: because atrocity law is built through fragile, contingent drafting choices, legal scholars and practitioners must remain humble and vigilant about how naming, punctuation, and jurisdictional compromises shape the real-world recognition of victims and the legitimacy of prosecutions. 


Link to journal article