Sovereignty in Transition: Human Rights and International Justice

Sovereign excesses in the twentieth century resulted in the murder of approximately 170,000,000 persons by their sovereign. This statistic, a potent testimony of sovereign excesses through gross and systematic human rights violations firmly places human rights and humanitarian problems on the international plane. This reality (identified and articulated in the Report of the Secretary General’s High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change) firmly places human rights problems on the international plane and mandates a fundamental rethinking about the basis of sovereignty’s political and associational organization in the new millennium. This Article has as its modest aim an examination and analysis of the role of the development of human rights and humanitarian norms in reshaping the content and contour of Westphalian sovereignty. In particular it seeks to espouse paradigms based on the impact of human rights and humanitarian norms through which sovereignty should be viewed and understood in contemporary times

Presiding over the Ex-President: A Look at Superior Responsibility in Light of the Kosovo Indictment

Individual criminal responsibility, and command responsibility in particular, are important because, to deter human rights abuses, potential perpetrators must perceive prosecution as a possible consequence of their actions. Historically, the doctrine of command responsibility has been an important tool to hold accountable leaders who plan, participate in, or acquiesce in large-scale human rights abuses. The scope of the command responsibility doctrine remains one of the most important issues in prosecuting human rights atrocities. The scope of the doctrine determines the degree to which a leader can insulate himself from criminal culpability when the criminal acts were committed by others but were caused by either the leader’s lack of diligence or acquiescence leading to subordinates not having scant regard for the dictates of human rights or international humanitarian law. This Article discusses Slobodan Milosevic’s responsibility as a superior in light of the Kosovo indictme