THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT AND ITS ROLE IN THE PROSECUTION OF GENOCIDE

This dissertation seeks to identify the role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court) to the international criminal law on genocide in its judgment on the Case concerning the Application of the Convention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro). 1 The overall assessment is as follows: while the judgment contains welcome clarifi cation and consolidation of the international criminal law on genocide in several respects, the Court did not fully apprehend the complex structure of the crime. Most importantly, the Court did not provide a coherent explanation for its characterization of the atrocities committed in Srebrenica as genocide. This note will not deal in any detail with the concept of a state act of genocide constituting an internationally wrongful act, the ICJ’s factual fi ndings, or its approach to admitting and weighing evidence.