Introduction

It is worth making it clear at the outset that this chapter is not an essay on whether states can commit crimes under international law or whether, in the words of the International Law Commission's Articles on State Responsibility of 2001, they commit ‘serious breaches of obligations under peremptory norms of general international law’. The use of the phrase ‘crimes by states’ is intended to capture the often integral role of the state in aggression, genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and systematic war crimes. The premise of the essay is that such acts, whether labelled crimes in a technical sense or not, should be confronted and stopped by the rest of the world, what is loosely termed here as the international community. It explores the international community's responses to such crimes beyond those limited avenues laid down by the principles of state responsibility. These have been labelled responses of political organs, to contrast them with the regime of international legal responsibility, though it will be shown that it is not always possible or desirable to keep them apart. It considers the deficiencies of the current political or institutional regime for dealing with crimes by states and explores ways of improving it. It is premised on there being a pressing need to develop a capability to stop crimes being committed by states, though responses can also be directed at preventing such crimes before they are committed or attempted, or indeed at punishing states for having committed them.