The ‘Crime of Crimes’? Dirk Moses and the Problems of Genocide The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression , by Dirk Moses, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021, 598 pp., £26.99, ISBN: 9781107103580

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 See, e.g., de Graaf, “Raising some Flags – The Problem of Genocide and Historical Security Studies.”2 Moses, The Problems of Genocide, 1.3 Ibid., 272-273.4 Ibid., 37.5 Ibid. 40.6 One example of this kind of history can be found in Halley’s work, although links academic work with activism, Halley, “Rape at Rome: Feminist Interventions in the Criminalization of Sex-Related Violence in Positive International Criminal Law.” I also looked at the role of academic commentary in Alexander, “A Short History of International Humanitarian Law.”7 Moses, The Problems of Genocide, 183-184.8 Ibid., 196.9 Ibid.,191.10 Alexander, “Lenin at Nuremberg.”11 Moses, The Problems of Genocide, 221.12 Ibid., 222-3.13 Ibid., 204.14 Ibid., 204.15 Ibid., 7.16 Ibid., 222-3.17 See, e.g., Mantilla, Lawmaking under Pressure.; Dijk, Preparing for War.; Alexander, “International Humanitarian Law, Postcolonialism and the 1977 ‘Geneva Protocol I’.”; Alexander, “The “Good War”: Preparations for a War against Civilians.”18 Ibid., 226.19 Ibid., 12.20 Ibid., 484.21 Ibid., 32.22 Ibid., 35, 233, 328.23 Ibid., 28.24 Ibid., 249.25 Ibid., 53.26 Ibid., 28.27 Ibid., 43.28 Ibid., 1.29 Ibid., 11.30 Ibid., 16-17.31 Ibid., 27.32 Ibid., 1.33 Ibid., 9, 273.34 Ibid., 42.35 Ibid., 42.36 See e.g. Foucault’s account of biopolitics as a specifically modern form of politics, Foucault, The Will to Knowledge, 137-145.37 Moses, The Problems of Genocide, 12.38 See, e.g., Finnemore, “Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention.”; Katzenstein, “Introduction: Alternative Perspectives on National Security.”39 Moyn, Humane.40 Google Ngram Viewer41 Moses, The Problems of Genocide, 476.42 Teitel, Humanity's Law, 46-47.43 Luban, “A Theory of Crimes against Humanity.” 120, describes the paradigmatic example of crimes against humanity as an attack by a government upon civilians it controls.44 Mettraux, International Crimes: Law and Practice, 242, 247.45 Ibid., 233.46 Teitel says ensure that they there is no site where humanity law's protective force is eluded, Teitel, Humanity's Law, 59.47 See e.g., Human Rights Watch, “Break Their Lineage, Break Their Roots”: China's Crimes against Humanity Targeting Uyghurs and Other Turkic Muslims, which states that ‘crimes against humanity are considered among the gravest human rights abuses under international law’, see also, Human Rights Watch, A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution, describing apartheid and persecution as crimes against humanity and stating that crimes against humanity are considered the most odious in international law; Human Rights Watch, We Will Erase You from This Land”: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone; Amnesty International, Hunger for Justice, Crimes against Humanity in Venezuela.48 See e.g., ‘Decision on the Prosecutor’s request for authorisation of an investigation pursuant to Article 15(3) of the Statute’, No. ICC-01/21, 15 September 2021; Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, on opening Preliminary Examinations into the situations in the Philippines and in Venezuela 8 February 2018, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-prosecutor-international-criminal-court-fatou-bensouda-opening-preliminary-0.49 Luban, “A Theory of Crimes against Humanity”, 86; Robertson, Crimes against Humanity. 373-374; Graf, The Humanity of Universal Crime, 136.50 Dubler, “What's in a Name? A Theory of Crimes against Humanity”, 99.51 Geras, Crimes Against Humanity, 59; Luban, “A Theory of Crimes against Humanity” 86.52 See, eg, Geras, Crimes Against Humanity, 101-102; Graf, The Humanity of Universal Crime, 136.53 Alexander, “A Short History of International Humanitarian Law”, 132-135.54 Ibid., 131-133.55 Ibid., 132-134.56 See, e.g. Pinker, The Better Angels of our Nature, 376-386; Moyn also argues that the practice of war has become more humane, Moyn, Humane, 322.57 See, e.g., Kennedy, The Dark Sides of Virtue. Graf, The Humanity of Universal Crime. 113, Dixon, “‘Endless Wars of Altruism’? Human Rights, Humanitarianism and the Syrian War.’58 See, e.g. Kennedy, The Dark Sides of Virtue; Moyn, Humane.59 See, e.g., Gordon and Perugini, Human Shields.60 Moses, The Problems of Genocide, 2.61 See, e.g., Melzer, Direct Participation in Hostilities.62 See, e.g., Israel Supreme Court: Public Committee Against Torture in Israel v Israel (Targeted Killings Case) [December 16, 2006] (2007) 46 ILM 375 para 2 per vice-President Rivlin.63 See, e.g. Beres, “Genocide and Power Politics: The Individual and the State”; Horowitz, Taking Lives: Genocide and State Power; Luban, “A Theory of Crimes against Humanity.”; Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 105, 112; Robertson, Crimes against Humanity, xviii; Schabas, Genocide in International Law, 1.64 Moses, The Problems of Genocide. 165 Ibid. 511