The Criminal State : War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice

A sweeping history of the struggle to hold states to account for their gravest crimesThe Criminal State offers a gripping account of how law has confronted the most radical forms of state violence. Beautifully written, broad in scope, and bracingly original, it weaves history with political thought to trace the shifting legal response to state aggression and atrocities, from Leopolds rule over the Congo to Putins war in Ukraine.At its heart is Lawrence Douglass fresh interpretation of the laws reckoning with Nazi aggression and atrocity. He shows how the Nuremberg trials challenged centuries of thoughtrooted in Hobbes and other canonical thinkersthat shielded sovereigns from legal scrutiny. Yet Nurembergs bid to frame aggression as the cornerstone of a new order of international criminal law largely failed, giving way to a system now centrally concerned with crimes against humanity and genocidewhile leaving unresolved the legality and effectiveness of using force to stop the worst violations of human

rights.Providing rare historical perspective on the dilemmas facing international courts, The Criminal State is a sweeping, provocative history of the struggle to bring perpetrators of state violence to justice. [Publisher's text]