Customary international law is the most important source of international criminal law. Fifty years after the Nuremberg trials, many convictions imposed by the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda are still based on customary international law alone. The International Criminal Court, by contrast, has not yet had much opportunity to give more guidance on this matter. Hence, it is worthwhile to provide an overview of the current status of custom by analysing the ad hoc tribunal’s case...
Building on an empirical analysis of the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice and the two ad hoc tribunals for ex-Yugoslavia and Rwanda, this book sheds new light on the development of custom as a source of international (criminal) law.