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11 Hous. J. Int'l L. 337 (1988-1989)
Universality and the Responsibility to Enforce International Criminal Law: No U.S. Sanctuary for Alleged Nazi War Criminals

handle is hein.journals/hujil11 and id is 345 raw text is: UNIVERSALITY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY TO ENFORCE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW: NO U.S. SANCTUARY FOR ALLEGED NAZI WAR CRIMINALS Jordan J. Paust* Today it is generally recognized that customary international law of a peremptory nature places an obligation on each nation-state to search for and bring into custody and to initiate prosecution of or to extradite all persons within its territory or control who are reasonably accused of having committed, for example, war crimes, genocide, breaches of neu- trality, and other crimes against peace.1 With respect to war crimes in particular, there has been a long his- tory of expectation that war crimes are offenses against humankind over which there is universal jurisdiction and a universal duty to prosecute.2 For over two hundred years, the United States has generally shared such expectations and has imposed criminal sanctions against our own nation- als and those of other countries, here and abroad, in military commis- sions and other fora, for violations of the laws of armed conflict.3 Additionally, there are numerous recognitions outside the United States of such a jurisdictional competence and responsibility. As an example, the 1919 Report presented to the Preliminary Peace Conference by the * Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center. The following essay is based on a speech delivered at the Boston College Law School conference on Holocaust and Human Rights Law: The Third International Conference on April 11, 1988, and is printed with the permission of the Boston College Law School Holocaust Human Rights Research Project. 1. See, e.g., M.C. BASSIOUNI, A DRAFr INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL CODE AND DRAFr STATUTE FOR AN INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL 110 (1987) (such duty is a general principle of international law.); M.C. BASSIOUNI, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAw-A DRAFT INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL CODE 110 (1980); Paust, Extradition and United States Prosecution of the Achille Lauro Hostage-Takers: Navigating the Hazards, 20 VAND. J. TRANS. L. 235, 237-38 (1987), and references cited; Paust & Blaustein, War Crimes Jurisdiction and Due Process: The Bangladesh Experience, 11 VAND. J. TRANS. L. 1, 20-29 (1978), and refer- ences cited. 2. See, e.g., Paust, Federal Jurisdiction Over Extraterritorial Acts of Terrorism and Nonimmunity for Foreign Violators of International Law Under the FSIA and the Act of State Doctrine, 23 VA. J. INT'L L. 191, 211-12, 223-24 (1983); supra note 1; see infra text accompa- nying notes 5-6, 10-11, and 14. 3. See, e.g., Paust, My Lai and Vietnam: Norms, Myths and Leader Responsibility, 57 MIL. L. REv. 99, 112-18, 164-84 (1972), and references cited.

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