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New histories and new laws: Crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2019

Amanda Alexander
Amanda Alexander*
Affiliation:
Australian Catholic University, Napier St, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia
*
Email: Amanda.Alexander@acu.edu.au
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Abstract

This article looks at the development of the concept of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). It contends that the ICTR’s interpretation of crimes against humanity is generally seen by international lawyers as a commendable, but unsurprising, step in the historical development of this category. In much the same way, the ICTR’s historical account is considered to be a standard attempt by a war crimes court to relate a liberal history of crimes against humanity in a way that upholds civilized values. Yet, although the historical and legal work of the ICTR appear unexceptional, this article will argue that they do demonstrate a particular conceptual approach towards warfare, history, humanity, and the nature of international law. Moreover, this is a conceptual approach that is quite different to that taken by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. The article suggests that these differences, and the invisibility of the change, are due to the ICTR’s reliance on familiar narrative tropes. These narratives were established through poststructuralist theory but could be expressed in a variety of more or (often) less theoretical forms. By exploring the influence of these narratives on the Tribunal, it is possible to examine some of the ways in which conceptual change is facilitated and knowledge is created in international law. In particular, it shows how theories that are often considered marginal to international law have had a significant impact on some of the central provisions of international humanitarian law.

Keywords

history of international lawInternational Criminal Tribunal for Rwandainternational humanitarian lawpostcolonialismwar crimes trials
Type
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Information
Leiden Journal of International Law , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 801 - 818
Copyright
© Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2019 

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References

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133 Ibid., at para. 99.

134 Ibid., at para. 127.

135 Ibid., at para. 129.

136 Ibid., at para. 128.

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141 Robinson and MacNeil, supra note 127, at 193–4. Wilson, supra note 29, at 177, shows that this approach influenced later cases and textbooks. I should acknowledge that Wilson, ibid., at 173–83, argues that the subjective approach to ethnicity co-existed in the ICTR with a desire for objective proof of ethnicity or a preference for showing that the Tutsi were a stable and permanent group. However, unlike Wilson, I do not see this as a tension in the case law or an example of limited legal reasoning, but rather as a demonstration of pseudo-poststructuralist method, which is able to see identity as subjective and constructed while referring to artefacts that confirm this identity. The very fact that Wilson’s deconstruction considers this to be problematic, shows how much the meaning of the case law depends on theoretical tropes and approaches.

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148 Akayesu Judgment, supra note 31, at paras. 22–5.

149 Prosecutor v. Akayesu, Redacted Transcript, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, T.Ch. I., 23 March 1998, at 15–16.

150 Ibid., at 144.

151 Akayesu Judgment, supra note 31, at para. 597.

152 Ibid.

153 Ibid., at para. 731.

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155 Akayesu Judgment, supra note 31, at para. 731.

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