Moral Accountability and International Criminal Law：Holding Agents of Atrocity Accountable to the World

"In the past couple of decades an autonomous international system of law has aggressively developed to deal with individual criminal responsibility for the most heinous of crimes. However, the development and application of the international criminal system is mired in criticism and concern. While international criminal law is playing an increasingly important role in global politics and issues of global security, normative theory has not kept pace with the advancements in this area of law. This book examines international criminal law (ICL) from a normative perspective, setting out how individuals ought to be held accountable to the world for their contribution to atrocity. In addition to addressing the normative basis for ICL, the book provides criteria for determining the kinds of actions that should be addressed through international criminal law. It asks, and answers, how individual responsibility can be determined in the context of collectively perpetrated political crimes and whether an international criminal justice system can claim universality in a culturally plural world. The book scrutinizes the function of ICL and finally considers how the goals and purpose of international law can be best institutionally supported"--

Kirsten J. Fisher is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research at the University of Helsinki. Prior to this post, she held a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, and a visiting research fellowship at the Centre of Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Faculty of Law, McGill University. She writes on issues of global justice and international criminal law.