Labuda on the Lieber Code, Retaliation, and the Origins of International Criminal Law

Patryk I. Labuda, University of Geneva, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian law and Human Rights, has published The Lieber Code, Retaliation and the Origins of International Criminal Law in 3 Historical Origins of International Criminal Law 299-341 (M. Bergamo et al., TOAEP, 2015).

This chapter assesses when and how war crimes trials emerged as the primary method of sanctioning law of war violations. It argues that the rise of individual criminal accountability in the late 19th century should be viewed as a counterpoint to a separate and overlooked process of delegitimizing belligerent reprisals. Taken together, these two phenomena are part of the history of individualizing and humanizing international law in the late 19th and early 20th century.

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