Forcible Displacement Throughout the Ages ─ Towards an International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Forcible Displacement

Suggesting the body of law that is currently emerging around the crime of forcible displacement from international tribunals may not reflect the realities of the situations on the ground and further noting that refugee law by definition only deals with situations occurring after displacement, Dawson (a Legal Officer at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) and Farber (an Associate with Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP) propose the need for an international instrument that places a positive obligation upon state actors--and non-state actors, where appropriate--to prevent the forcible displacement of human populations. Such an instrument would contain uniform criminal definitions for violations. They review the history of forcible displacement, consider the legal underpinnings for the definition of the crime, describe the experience of the international tribunals with forcible displacement, examine the legal scholarly literature on forcible displacement, explore the question of development-induced displacement, assess the weaknesses of current applicable law through a case study of Colombia, and present their own proposal for an international convention on forced displacement (together with explanatory commentary). Martinus Nijhoff is an imprint of Brill. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Grant Dawson, Juris Doctor (1999), Georgetown University Law Center, is a Legal Officer at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. A member of the bars of New York and Washington, DC, he has published several articles on international criminal law.Sonia Farber, Juris Doctor (2010), Berkeley School of Law, is an Associate practicing in the International Dispute Resolution Group at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP. She is a member of the bar of New York and author of Forgotten at Guantanamo: The Boumediene Decision and Its Implications for Refugees at the Base Under the Obama Administration, published in the California Law Review (2010).