'[I]f you want to confine your energies to big fish, you need larger holes. Otherwise, you'll spend all your time picking out the sardines, minnows, and plastic bottles. One of the greatest challenges of international criminal justice is the selection of cases. Resources must be focused using the concept of 'those who bear the greatest responsibility' or something similar.
-- Our colleague William A. Schabas, Professor of Human Rights Law, and Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland-Galway, in "Prosecuting Dr Strangelove, Goldfinger, and the Joker at the International Criminal Court: Closing the Loopholes," published in a Leiden Journal of International Law forum on the policy element included in the ICC definition of crimes against humanity. At issue, to be precise, is Article 7(2)(a) of the Rome Statute, which requires that the requisite anti-civilian attack occur "pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack." Schabas' concluding essay constitutes a biting smackdown of proposals to relax the requirement.
