Skip Navigation

Special Issue: Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions

Special Issue: Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions

Special Issue
September 2009

Editor: James G. Stewart, Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia

While the Geneva Conventions of 1949 were by no means the first treaties to govern the law of war, the ‘'grave breaches regime’ enshrined within the Geneva Conventions was novel. For the first time, a multilateral treaty designated certain provisions of the laws of war as grave breaches, violation of which gave rise to individual criminal responsibility. The grave breaches regime not only specified these offences, it also compelled their enforcement by incorporating obligations to implement grave breaches into national criminal law and to search for and prosecute those responsible regardless of their nationality.

Sixty years later, the Geneva Conventions have become a universally binding source of international law, and a range of both domestic and supranational judicial bodies continue to prosecute grave breaches as a matter of course.

An anniversary, however, provokes review. To that end, a Special Issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice brings together leading academics, domestic war crimes prosecutors, senior representatives of war crimes tribunals, and legal advisors to the International Committee of the Red Cross, in order to critically appraise key components of the grave breaches regime after the first six decades. Together, the commentators reflect upon the extent to which the original intentions behind the grave breaches regime have been met, decipher whether these offences are likely to stand the test of time, and point to possibilities of a more effective system of criminal repression during war for this our violent world.

Receive email alerts with FREE articles from this issue:

1. Complete an online form to register with My Account
2. Or, if already registered, sign in here
3. Once logged in to My Account, select ‘View alerting preferences’
4. Choose the Journal of International Criminal Justice from the list