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The Nuremberg Judgment on the leaders of Nazi Germany proclaimed ‘crimes against peace’ – the planning and waging of aggressive wars – to be ‘the supreme international crime’.  This charge was premised on two innovative ideas: that aggressive war was a crime, and that individuals could be held responsible for it. Although heralded as an historic milestone at the time, it turned out to be a transient legal anomaly.  At the Nuremberg Tribunal, the number of acquittals, coupled with the relative leniency of the sentences, indicated the judges’ unease about convicting on the basis of ‘crimes against peace’.  At the Tokyo Tribunal, some judges questioned the validity of the charge and filed dissents.  Legal observers, meanwhile, were outspoken in their criticisms, and argued that it was an ex post facto enactment, selectively applied. Aside from retroactivity and selectivity, the main difficulty arose from the internal contradictions within the charge itself, which rendered it unsustainable as a component of international law.  On jurisdiction, it enhanced the sovereignty of nations by protecting them against aggression, while simultaneously undermining sovereignty by subjecting leaders to international law.  On enforcement, while judicialising punishment after the event, it simultaneously de-legitimised both aggression and attempts to prevent it.  These weaknesses were confirmed by the failure of ‘crimes against peace’ to become part of customary international law. If the Rome Statute is amended to include ‘crime of aggression’ within the International Criminal Court’s operative remit, these latter problems are likely to occur.

A expansão do direito penal pelos direitos humanos tem no direito penal internacional um privilegiado campo de estudo. Entre as tendências expansivas dos direitos humanos, motivadas pela luta contra a impunidade, e a necessária contenção mecanismo punitivo, princípios, estruturas de aplicação e fundamentação entram em choque, quando se pensava que os direitos humanos e o direito penal originaram-se da mesma matriz liberal de contenção do poder estatal. O tema ganha especial impulso diante da perspectiva expansionista por que passa o direito penal na modernidade, dos influxos da globalização. As decisões dos tribunais penais internacionais, de Nuremberg a Haia, dos tribunais de direitos humanos (europeu e interamericano), fornecem um panorama de como essa relação tem sido construída, favorecendo a aplicação da norma punitiva e flexibilizando garantias clássicas penais e processuais penais. A discussão empreendida busca matizar a luta contra a impunidade que seja tributária dos avanços jurídicos do sistema de garantias, também conquistas sociais e políticas para a efetiva proteção dos direitos humanos. Nesse contexto, alerta-se para o fato de que se estaria produzindo um direito especial motivado pela luta contra os mais graves crimes contra a paz e a segurança mundiais. Finalmente, expõe-se as dificuldades de validação do conteúdo preventivo das normas em direito penal internacional, do déficit democrático de sua produção desconectada da base social sobre a qual atua, e do efeito simbólico de seus enunciados à custa das máximas garantias. / The international criminal law features a special condition for the critical analysis of the expansion of criminal law through human rights. Between the expansive tendencies of human rights, motivated by the fight against impunity, and the necessary containment of punitive mechanism, stands the international criminal law, whose principles, implementation structures and grounds clash, despite the fact that human rights and criminal law originated from the same liberal matrix for the containment of state power. The debate gained particular momentum with the expansionist perspective experienced by the criminal law in modern times of globalization inflows. The decisions of international criminal courts, from Nuremberg to The Hague, human rights tribunals (European and Inter-American), provide an overview of how this relationship has been built, favoring the application of criminal provisions and easing criminal and criminal procedural classical guarantees. The discussion undertaken shades the fight against impunity, that shall be paved by the legal achievements for the effective protection of human rights, warning to the fact that it is producing a special law, away from the legal domestic law principles, motivated by the fight against the most serious crimes against peace and world security. Finally, sets up the difficulties in accepting the preventive content of international criminal provisions, the democratic deficit of its production disconnected of the social contexts in which operates, and the symbolic effect of its legal provisions at the expense of the maximum guarantees.

Thesis (Master of Military Studies)-Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 2008. / Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Jan 12, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

A expansão do direito penal pelos direitos humanos tem no direito penal internacional um privilegiado campo de estudo. Entre as tendências expansivas dos direitos humanos, motivadas pela luta contra a impunidade, e a necessária contenção mecanismo punitivo, princípios, estruturas de aplicação e fundamentação entram em choque, quando se pensava que os direitos humanos e o direito penal originaram-se da mesma matriz liberal de contenção do poder estatal. O tema ganha especial impulso diante da perspectiva expansionista por que passa o direito penal na modernidade, dos influxos da globalização. As decisões dos tribunais penais internacionais, de Nuremberg a Haia, dos tribunais de direitos humanos (europeu e interamericano), fornecem um panorama de como essa relação tem sido construída, favorecendo a aplicação da norma punitiva e flexibilizando garantias clássicas penais e processuais penais. A discussão empreendida busca matizar a luta contra a impunidade que seja tributária dos avanços jurídicos do sistema de garantias, também conquistas sociais e políticas para a efetiva proteção dos direitos humanos. Nesse contexto, alerta-se para o fato de que se estaria produzindo um direito especial motivado pela luta contra os mais graves crimes contra a paz e a segurança mundiais. Finalmente, expõe-se as dificuldades de validação do conteúdo preventivo das normas em direito penal internacional, do déficit democrático de sua produção desconectada da base social sobre a qual atua, e do efeito simbólico de seus enunciados à custa das máximas garantias. / The international criminal law features a special condition for the critical analysis of the expansion of criminal law through human rights. Between the expansive tendencies of human rights, motivated by the fight against impunity, and the necessary containment of punitive mechanism, stands the international criminal law, whose principles, implementation structures and grounds clash, despite the fact that human rights and criminal law originated from the same liberal matrix for the containment of state power. The debate gained particular momentum with the expansionist perspective experienced by the criminal law in modern times of globalization inflows. The decisions of international criminal courts, from Nuremberg to The Hague, human rights tribunals (European and Inter-American), provide an overview of how this relationship has been built, favoring the application of criminal provisions and easing criminal and criminal procedural classical guarantees. The discussion undertaken shades the fight against impunity, that shall be paved by the legal achievements for the effective protection of human rights, warning to the fact that it is producing a special law, away from the legal domestic law principles, motivated by the fight against the most serious crimes against peace and world security. Finally, sets up the difficulties in accepting the preventive content of international criminal provisions, the democratic deficit of its production disconnected of the social contexts in which operates, and the symbolic effect of its legal provisions at the expense of the maximum guarantees.