10 Accountability for Violations of the Laws of War

This chapter covers the trials and convictions of leaders for crimes against peace in Nuremberg and Tokyo after the Second World War. It also examines the reparations regimes set up with regard to Iraq in 1991 and the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict in 1998. The chapter explains how the crime of aggression operates in the Statute of the International Criminal Court. It describes possibilities to demand various forms of accountability for breaching other rules of international law that are considered war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. There is an almost complete listing of war crimes as well as an explanation of the significance of some war crimes being grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I. The Chapter ends with a look at other forms of accountability beyond criminal prosecution, including the use of belligerent reprisals.