WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: AN ALTERNATIVE ORGANISING PRINCIPLE?

Abstract

National leaders often misuse the concept of terrorism as a political tool, making it an unsatisfactory concept around which to organise models of criminal law. It is particularly unsuited to a coordinated and worldwide law enforcement campaign, which has extended to invasion of sovereign countries; removal and execution of heads of state; the use of torture and killing of civilians. Terrorism is currently defined and prosecuted under criminal law, lending itself to both politicisation and becoming the basis of propaganda. This article seeks to offer alternative organising principles for the prosecution of terrorism — those of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity.