This study has investigated the emergence of an international criminal justice
order from its inception to its current status. It has investigated the emergence
of an international criminal justice order by referring to: (1) the early attempts
by nations to control the waging of war; (2) the influence and impact of the
Nuremberg and Tokyo International Criminal Tribunals; (3) the emergence
and rooting of international human rights and humanitarian law in coexistence
with international criminal law, particularly since the adoption of the
1949 Geneva Conventions; (4) the influence and impact of the international
criminal ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; (5) recent
attempts by states to exercise universal jurisdiction such as in the Pinochet
and Congo cases; (6) the establishment of the International Criminal Court
and numerous aspects of international criminal law that have been
established by the Rome Treaty creating the Court; (7) the obstacles that are
faced by the court; (8) other transitional justice mechanisms in an ongoing
attempt to provide accountability and redress where serious infringements of
international human rights and humanitarian law have occurred; and (9) a
South African perspective of the past and current status of international law in
domestic law. It has established that although the sovereignty and equality of
states remains a cornerstone of international law, inroads have been made
into the doctrine of absolute state sovereignty to the extent that it is now
universally recognised that certain crimes are so reprehensible in their nature,
that they warrant prosecution wherever they are committed, no matter by
whom they are committed.
It has further established that international criminal law and justice did not
evolve overnight and most of its current status is ascribable to unfortunate
and indescribable human suffering. It has provided a historical perspective of the early attempts to regulate the
waging of war, and showed the impact of the International Military Tribunal at
Nuremberg and Tokyo, most significantly establishing individual accountability
as opposed to only state accountability. The latter development led to an
introduction, resurgence and development of human rights and particularly
humanitarian law subsequent to World War II, to the extent that the destiny of
international criminal law is unavoidably interwoven with the former two
branches of international law.
It proceeded to record and demonstrate the impact on international law
generally and international criminal law in particular, with the establishment of
the ICTY and the ICTR. It has demonstrated that the establishment of these
two ad hoc tribunals provided impetus to renewed calls for the establishment
of a permanent International Criminal Court and has greatly contributed to the
recording and further development of international criminal law. Lastly, it has
provided much impetus for states to exercise universal jurisdiction over
prosecution of core crimes. The latter impetus provided the background to a
chapter in this work indicating positive steps by states to exercise universal
jurisdiction.
It proceeded to provide the historical background for the eventual
establishment of the International Criminal Court and concurrently
demonstrated its impact on the development of an international order of
justice. The research provided a brief analysis of transitional justice models in
recent times, contributing to an analysis of what lessons may be learned from
these attempts of various transitional societies.
It then proceeded to provide a South African perspective, particularly the
evolution of the status of international law in South African domestic law. The
thesis concluded that the need for a consistent international criminal justice
order is validated and although the international community is continually
shocked by ongoing atrocities around the globe, significant progress has been
made in recent decades to extend the international rule of law.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08102007-133741 |
| Date | 10 August 2007 |
| Creators | Swanepoel, Cornelis Francois |
| Contributors | Prof CP van der Merwe Fick |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08102007-133741/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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