Defences in Contemporary International Criminal Law

In an area of law so thoroughly politicized, culturally freighted and passionately punitive, there is need for an extraordinary measure of protection for the accused if we are to pay more than lip service to justice.

Defenses in Contemporary International Criminal Law ventures farther into this uneasy territory than any previous work, offering a meticulous analysis of the case law in the post World War II Military Tribunals and the ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia, with particular attention to the defenses developed, their rationales, and their origins in various municipal systems. It analyzes the defense provisions in the charters and statutes underlying these tribunals and the new International Criminal Court.

Dr. Knoops' conceptual reach not only includes the defenses recognized in the field's jurisprudence and scholarship (superior orders, duress, self-defense, insanity, necessity, immunity of States) but also presents a strong case for the incorporation of genetic and neurobiological data into the working assets of the international criminal defense attorney.

Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.