Description
International criminal law is located within, and perhaps constitutes the culmination of, the ‘anti-impunity agenda’ within international law, policy, and practice. This ‘anti-impunity agenda’ is historically driven by the idea of ‘never again’: a pledge to prevent atrocities that emerged out of the horrors of World War II, and a conviction that criminal sanctions are essential for its realisation. In this way, punishing atrocities is deemed the primary way of deterring and preventing them. The framing of punishment as an imperative in the aftermath of serious violations of international law also assumes an expressive function: it is seen as reclaiming and restoring universal moral principles and victims’ equal moral status – or even their humanity – in a context where these were fundamentally and violently denied. Accordingly, the pursuit of punishment in response to deeply egregious wrongs against persons or humanity at large, and the values such pursuit (purportedly) upholds, has become the ‘justice norm’ within international criminal law and international human rights law.| Period | 30 Jul 2024 |
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| Held at | Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom |