Genocide as a Crime under International Law

1 Abstract This thesis interrogates a central paradox of contemporary international law and politics: although the prohibition of genocide occupies the apex of the normative hierarchy, the international system continues along a disquietingly familiar historical trajectory marked by recurrent failures of timely prevention and of meaningful accountability. Situating the prohibition of genocide in relation to both its historical promise and its persistent enforcement deficits, the thesis undertakes an interdisciplinary inquiry into the contemporary institutionalization and operationalization of genocide prevention, with particular attention to the ICJ as an increasingly prominent forum in which states contest allegations of genocidal conduct amid an unprecedented turn toward the judicialization of intensely politicized disputes. Doctrinally, the thesis offers a comprehensive reconstruction of the crime of genocide as interpreted in the authoritative jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals and the doctrinal literature. Furthermore, it analyzes genocide prevention through the prism of individualized obligations incumbent upon states to prevent genocide. Building on the theoretical frameworks of legalization, legitimacy-based compliance, and judicialization, the thesis evaluates this emerging...