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Abstract

The international comparative research project "National Prosecution of International Crimes" conducted under the direction of Albin Eser, Ulrich Sieber, and Helmut Kreicker at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Freiburg, Germany) investigates, in the context of the complementary jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the scope and manner in which various states provide for the punishment of international crimes in their own national courts. By way of individual country reports, the criminal law systems of over 30 countries are analyzed.
This English-language volume presents the reports on Canada by Till Gut and Max Wolpert, Estonia by Andres Parmas and Tristan Ploom, Greece by Michalis G. Retalis, Israel by Mordechai Kremnitzer and Moshe A. Cohen and the United States of America by Emily Silverman. The studies provide an overview of the wide range of approaches to the punishment of international crimes: Canada has enacted an independent Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which penalizes acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In Estonia, in contrast, these crimes are regulated directly in the Criminal Code itself. While the Estonian Criminal Code formulates the criminal offense definitions individually, the Canadian Act instead relies on references to customary international law. In Israel and the United States, crimes against humanity can only be punished in terms of violations of ordinary criminal offenses, while acts of genocide are covered by special criminal offenses. As far as war crimes are concerned, the United States has created special criminal offenses, while in Israel war crimes can only be punished in terms of violations of the ordinary criminal law. In Greece, finally, there is no special legislation whatsoever covering international crimes.