Search results for ""Author M. Cherif Bassiouni""

M Cherif Bassiouni was a towering figure in international law. He was personally connected to some of the most historically relevant moments of the past century: the Suez War; the Camp David Accords; the fall of Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya and the establishment of the International Criminal Court. A true global citizen – raised in Egypt, educated in Europe and emigrated to the United States – his life cut across cultures and religions. This fascinating memoir gives an immediate and personal eye-witness account of the operation of international events during a tumultuous period.

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Globalization is not a new phenomenon. New realities have emerged over the past two decades which have given it greater influence in the affairs of states. This coincided with the increasing inability of states and international organizations to carry out their institutional functions for the common good. This is testing a number of assumptions about the future of human rights and international criminal justice.The changes in state priorities concerning human rights and international criminal justice evidence a subtle change in the values of the international community. This is particularly evident in the enhanced concerns of states with issues of national security as they are perceived in so many different ways. At the same time states' ability to govern and deliver public services are increasingly being challenged.Science and technology dominate the present state of globalization and in some positive ways and have increased human interdependence and interconnectedness but with paradoxical positive and negative effects and outcomes.They enhance the power and wealth of certain states while increasing the gap between those states and others. This gap between the ''haves'' and the ''have nots'' continues to increase. With world population projected to grow from seven to nine billion, with disproportionate availability of food and other resources for those most in need of it, social, economic and political disparities are enhanced. Internal state dysfunction is on the increase as evidenced by the number of failed and failing states among developing and under-developed societies.Globalization has not only enhanced the power and wealth of certain states with resources and technological, including military capabilities, it has also given these states a claim of exceptionalism. That claim has also extended to certain multinational corporations and other non-state actors (NSAs) because of their wealth, worldwide activities, and their economic and political power and influence over national and international institutions. For all practical purposes, many of these multinational entities have become beyond the reach of the law, whether national or international. As a result they and their principal actors benefit from impunity notwithstanding the harmful consequences of their conduct on human beings and on the environment. Environmental changes resulting from the international community's failure to develop and adequate system of control over fossil fuel consumption and other factors impacting climate change have and will continue to unleash harmful consequences on certain parts of the world, which will impact certain populations.As these and other negative consequences of globalization occur, it is already evident that the values and legal protections afforded to human rights, including an end to impunity for international crimes is receding. The ''Responsibility to Protect'', adopted by world summit of 2005 has never been put into effect. Similarly, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Victims of Crime has also never been put into effect. How states and the international community will react in the face of the forthcoming challenges of population growth, resource scarcity, environmental disasters and other natural and human tragedies is a legitimate source of concern.The absence of an international system to regulate these needs for human survivability will necessarily mean that the human rights of some will be sacrificed. All this has negative consequences for human rights, yet nothing that the international system presently offers can mitigate these consequences only the occasional good will of some states.What remains to help counteract and mitigate the cascade of negative effects and outcomes of unbridled globalization on our planet are international civil society institutions and some concerned states. What they may be capable of achieving in the face of the changing landscape of the world order is, however, difficult to assess.

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Current media and political discourse on crime has long ignored crimes committed by States themselves, despite their greater financial and human toll. For the past two decades, scholars have examined how and why States violate their own laws and international law and explored what can be done to reduce or prevent these injustices. Through a collection of essays by leading scholars in the field, State Crime offers a set of cases exemplifying state criminality along with various methods for controlling governmental transgressions. With topics ranging from crimes of aggression to nuclear weapons to the construction and implementation of social controls, this volume is an indispensable resource for those who examine the behavior of States and those who study crime in its varied forms.

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