Collective and individual responsibility in international law, with special consideration to the punishment of war criminals.
Keywords:
International Law, War criminals, Criminal courtAbstract
This article is a clear exposition of the legal theory of International Law taught by Professor HANS KELSEN who is currently teaching at the University of Berkeley, California. This article appears simultaneously in the "Revista de la Universidad de Córdoba" and in English in the "California Law Review". Our version is due to Dr. ENRIQUE FERRER VIEYRA, scholar at the University of Berkeley, disciple of KELSEN, through whom we have obtained this valuable collaboration that reveals the commitment with which he is working on the international legal structuring of the post-war period, in its various aspects.
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Author Biography
Hans Kelsen, Universidad de Austria
Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) was an Austrian jurist and philosopher. He is considered the most influential jurist of the 20th century. He studied law at the University of Vienna in 1911, where he completed his qualification in constitutional law and philosophy of law. He attended a complementary seminar at the University of Heidelberg under the direction of Georg Jellinek. In 1919 he became professor of administrative law at the same Viennese university and was commissioned by Chancellor Karl Renner to design a new constitution, which was finally completed in 1920. After that, Kelsen is appointed as a life member of the Austrian Constitutional Court. To the climate of conservatism that was evident in Austria in 1930 was added the conflict that arose as a result of the legal loophole surrounding divorce in Austrian law, a conflict that the constitutional court, presided over by Kelsen, resolved by detecting a conflict of competence between the administrative and jurisdictional spheres. This led to the replacement of Kelsen as a member of the court. Finally, the outbreak of the Second World War led him to leave Europe, arriving in the United States (1940) thanks to the Rockefeller Foundation. There he taught at Harvard University where he held the "Oliver Wendell Holmes" chair. In this new stage, Kelsen came into direct contact with Anglo-Saxon legal science: common law. The fruit of this is his work The General Theory of Law and State (1945), published in English. The University of California, Berkeley would provide him with a more relaxed environment, as well as trips to Washington as an advisor to the government on jurisdictional matters related to the Nuremberg Trials. Also, in 1945, the Charter of the United Nations was signed in the U.S., precisely in California. It is known that Kelsen did not take part, officially at least, in this fundamental event. However, many delegations from different countries sought his advice before the sessions that were to take place, as follows: Roland Lebeau, of Belgium; Eenco Van Kleffens, of Holland; and Vladimir Vochoc, of Czechoslovakia consulted him; moreover his book, The Law of the United Nations, took a direct part in the debates during the sessions. In 1965, at the age of 85, Kelsen devoted himself, at Berkeley, to writing the last of his great works: The General Theory of Norms (1994), which, however, remained incomplete.
Referece
Hans Kelsen (August 31, 2023). On Wikipedia. https://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hans_Kelsen&oldid=153429550
References
Confrontar 2 OPPENHEIM, "Internatwnal Law" (ed. 6, 1940).
Confrontar e. g. 1 OPPENHEIM, "International Law" (ed. 5, 1935)
Confrontar e g. FISCHER WILLIAMS, "Chapter on Current International Law and the League of Nations" (1929), p. 234.
VESPASIANO V. PELLA, en La influence d' une Jurirdiction criminelle intednationale (1936).
BELLOT, A. Permanent International Criminal Court, en "The International Law Association, Report of the Thirty-first Conference" (1923), vol. 1, p. 73.
OPPENHEIM, op. cit., supra, nota 2 (1ª. a 5ª. ed.), § 253.
VERDROSS, "Voelkerrecht" (1937), pág. 298
MERIGNAC, De la sanction des infractions au Droit Gens, en "Revue Générale de Droit International Public", vol. 24, p. 49 (1917).
Conf. MANNER, The Legal Nature and Punishment of Criminal Acts of Violence Contrary to the Laws of War, (1943) 37 "Am. J. Int. Law", 407.
SCHWARZENBERGER, War Crimfs and the Problem of an lnternational Criminal Court (1924).
HALL, A Treatise on International Law (1924), § 135.
HYDE, Punishment of War Criminal (1943), Proceedings of the American Society of Intetnational Law, 39, 43.
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