David J. Scheffer – författare

This book reintroduces the U.N. Charter to the global audience by describing the Charter as the most important secular document in the world, for it is essentially the constitution of global governance to which all nations are bound, even if some honor it in the breach. The co-authors explain the core principles embedded in the Charter, which embodies codified customary international law for all nations. But the book also introduces pragmatic interpretations of key Charter provisions to modernize its application both today and in the future. Under the authority of the Charter, such U.N. bodies as the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Human Rights Council, and International Court of Justice address global affairs in a tough neighborhood of 193 sovereign nations. Yet relatively few people are conversant with the principles set forth in the Charter.  With moral principles under siege and with the reality of divisive politics in contemporary life, the Charter remains a beacon of global unity that offers a renewed sense of human progress in a turbulent world. The book explicates five core tenets of the U.N. Charter: human rights and fundamental freedoms, international law, economic and social progress, international peace and security, and peacemaking.The book will appeal to the academic audience and is written in a style that will engage the general reader as well.This is an extraordinary book. An excellent combination of history and future. It should definitely be used widely in educating present and coming generations about the importance of the UN and international law. It should also be read by representatives of UN member states, in particular of the P5 of the UN Security Council. It is unacceptable that all of them do not consequently perform as required by the UN Charter. (Hans Corell, Former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations) This is an authoritative, comprehensive and timely work on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the UN Charter, by two leading experts in international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law. A must read.(The Honourable Irwin Cotler, P.C., O.C., O.Q., Ad.E.; former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; Founder & International Chair, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights)

This book reintroduces the U.N. Charter to the global audience by describing the Charter as the most important secular document in the world, for it is essentially the constitution of global governance to which all nations are bound, even if some honor it in the breach. The co-authors explain the core principles embedded in the Charter, which embodies codified customary international law for all nations. But the book also introduces pragmatic interpretations of key Charter provisions to modernize its application both today and in the future. Under the authority of the Charter, such U.N. bodies as the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Human Rights Council, and International Court of Justice address global affairs in a tough neighborhood of 193 sovereign nations. Yet relatively few people are conversant with the principles set forth in the Charter.  With moral principles under siege and with the reality of divisive politics in contemporary life, the Charter remains a beacon of global unity that offers a renewed sense of human progress in a turbulent world. The book explicates five core tenets of the U.N. Charter: human rights and fundamental freedoms, international law, economic and social progress, international peace and security, and peacemaking.The book will appeal to the academic audience and is written in a style that will engage the general reader as well.This is an extraordinary book. An excellent combination of history and future. It should definitely be used widely in educating present and coming generations about the importance of the UN and international law. It should also be read by representatives of UN member states, in particular of the P5 of the UN Security Council. It is unacceptable that all of them do not consequently perform as required by the UN Charter. (Hans Corell, Former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations) This is an authoritative, comprehensive and timely work on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the UN Charter, by two leading experts in international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law. A must read.(The Honourable Irwin Cotler, P.C., O.C., O.Q., Ad.E.; former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; Founder & International Chair, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights)

This book reintroduces the U.N. Charter to the global audience by describing the Charter as the most important secular document in the world, for it is essentially the constitution of global governance to which all nations are bound, even if some honor it in the breach. The co-authors explain the core principles embedded in the Charter, which embodies codified customary international law for all nations. But the book also introduces pragmatic interpretations of key Charter provisions to modernize its application both today and in the future. Under the authority of the Charter, such U.N. bodies as the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Human Rights Council, and International Court of Justice address global affairs in a tough neighborhood of 193 sovereign nations. Yet relatively few people are conversant with the principles set forth in the Charter.  With moral principles under siege and with the reality of divisive politics in contemporary life, the Charter remains a beacon of global unity that offers a renewed sense of human progress in a turbulent world. The book explicates five core tenets of the U.N. Charter: human rights and fundamental freedoms, international law, economic and social progress, international peace and security, and peacemaking.The book will appeal to the academic audience and is written in a style that will engage the general reader as well.This is an extraordinary book. An excellent combination of history and future. It should definitely be used widely in educating present and coming generations about the importance of the UN and international law. It should also be read by representatives of UN member states, in particular of the P5 of the UN Security Council. It is unacceptable that all of them do not consequently perform as required by the UN Charter. (Hans Corell, Former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations) This is an authoritative, comprehensive and timely work on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the UN Charter, by two leading experts in international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law. A must read.(The Honourable Irwin Cotler, P.C., O.C., O.Q., Ad.E.; former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; Founder & International Chair, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights)

This book explains the most significant cases and jurisprudence emerging from the thirty-two-year record of the judicial institutions highlighted in the book. It explains the principles of international law emerging from and being strengthened by the jurisprudence of tribunal judges. These include: the legal authority of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and regional organizations like the African Union and Council of Europe to create ad hoc or hybrid war crimes tribunals; greater precision and context in defining each category and listing of atrocity crimes, including the full range of genocide and torture and when either crime encompasses rape, the range of situations that constitute genocide and crimes against humanity, forced marriage as a crime against humanity, torture as a jus cogens principle, hate speech as persecution, and enslavement; elaborating modalities of individual criminal responsibility about command responsibility, aiding and abetting, and co-perpetration or joint criminal enterprise; developing new principles regulating non-international armed conflicts and the status of nonstate groups under international law; establishing clearer intent (mens rea) requirements for crimes against humanity and genocide; applying judicial notice to confirm the obvious reality that atrocity crimes on a massive scale occurred in a particular situation; establishing a broad range of human rights protections and the responsibility of states to ensure their enforcement.This book tells the story of pathbreaking developments in select cases litigated before the International Court of Justice, five special purpose atrocity crimes tribunals, the International Criminal Court, and the European, Inter-American and African human rights courts, as well as what to anticipate with the newly created Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. There also is a chapter on the important role of defense counsel before these courts and tribunals.