Aggression And Crimes Against Peace

In this volume, the third in his multi-volume project on the philosophical and legal aspects of international criminal law, Larry May locates a normative ground ing for the crime of aggression - the only one of the three crimes charged at Nuremberg that is not currently being prosecuted - that is similar to that for crimes against humanity and war crimes. He considers cases from the Nuremberg trials, philosophical debates in the Just War tradition, and more recent debates about the International Criminal Court, as well as the hard cases of humanitarian intervention and terrorist aggression. May argues that crimes of aggression, sometimes called crimes against peace, deserve international prosecution when one State underm the ability of another State to protect human rights. His thesis refutes the traditional understanding of aggression, which often has been interpreted as a crossing of borders by one sovereign state into another sovereign state. At Nuremberg, charges of crimes against humanity were pursued only if the defendant also engaged in the crime of aggression. May argues for a reversal of this position, contending that aggression charges should be pursued only if the defendant's acts involve serious human rights violations.
Larry May is professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis and Research Professor of Social Justice, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt and Australian National Universities. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including The Morality of War; Crimes against Humanity, which won an honorable mention from the American Society of International Law and a best book award from the North American Society for Social Philosophy; and War Crimes and Just War, which won the Frank Chapman Sharp Prize for the best book on the philosophy of war from the American Philosophical Association.
"In Aggression and Crimes against Peace, philosopher Larry May delivers a ground-breaking reassessment of what the Nuremberg Tribunal had identified as the 'supreme international crime.' Building upon his paradigm-shifting work on crimes against humanity and war crimes, May now reorients the debate regarding the scope and merits of criminalizing aggressive war. Especially note worthy is his contention that aggression should be defined as a first wrong that violates human rights. May combines reason with creativity - and sophistication with accessibility - to offer a tour de force with interdisciplinary appeal to a wide audience."
- Mark Drumbl, Washington and Lee University School of Law
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS