The role of ad hoc tribunals in the implementation of cosmopolitan law: an empirical study via Kantian ethics
Başak Naz Şimşek, Yeliz Kulalı MartinThe suffering inflicted on vulnerable people has attracted the interest of many thinkers since Antiquity. From Stoics to contemporary peace theorists, many scholars have proposed ways to prevent such suffering and achieve perpetual peace. This phenomenon lies at the heart of legal and political spheres because it has both legal and social foundations. A theory that focuses on the juridical side of the idea of perpetual peace is cosmopolitan law. It is based on Kantian ethics. Accordingly, a universal legal framework should be established to judge unlawful acts committed against vulnerable people. Cosmopolitan law is based on the idea that these unlawful acts cannot be confined to a single region as they wound the conscience of all humanity. The great violence committed during the world wars of the 20th century prompted the international community to unite around common legal values. The aim of this initiative was to condemn those responsible for these unlawful acts and to prevent the commission of new violence. It was following the Second World War that this idea was put into practice. The world was shaken by the very serious acts committed during this conflict, and later, in the 1990s. In the wake of large-scale inter-state and intra-state conflicts, four ad hoc criminal tribunals were set up in Germany, Japan, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda. This development agreed with the Kantian idea that certain crimes harm the conscience of all humanity and that perpetrators should be judged before the eyes of the international community through universal legal principles.
Le rôle des tribunaux ad hoc dans la mise en oeuvre des principes du droit cosmopolitique: une étude empirique via la pensée kantienne
Başak Naz Şimşek, Yeliz Kulalı MartinLes souffrances infligées aux personnes vulnérables attirent l’intérêt de plein de penseurs depuis l’Antiquité. Des philosophes stoïciens aux théoriciens contemporains de paix, de nombreuses personnes ont songé sur les manières d’empêcher ces souffrances et d’arriver à une paix perpétuelle. Ce phénomène se trouve au coeur des sphères juridiques et politiques, étant donné que le fait d’assurer une paix durable dispose des fondements légaux et sociaux à la fois. L’une des théories se concentrant au côté juridique de l’idée de la paix perpétuelle est le droit cosmopolitique. Les idées kantiennes en constituent les fondements. Selon cette théorie, un cadre juridique universel devrait être établi pour juger les actes illicites infligés aux personnes vulnérables. L’idée derrière cela est que ces violences nuisent à la conscience de toute l’humanité. Si bien qu’elles ne peuvent et ne devraient pas être limitées à une seule région. Les grandes violences commises pendant les guerres mondiales du 20ème siècle ont incité la communauté internationale à réunir autour des valeurs juridiques communes. Cette initiative consistait à condamner les responsables de ces actes illicites et d’empêcher la commission de nouvelles infractions. C’est à la suite de la Seconde Guerre mondiale que cette idée a été mise en pratique. Le monde a été bouleversé par les actes très graves commis pendant ce conflit, et plus tard, dans les années 90. A la suite des conflits interétatiques et intraétatiques à grande échelle, quatre tribunaux pénaux ad hoc ont été créés en Allemagne, au Japon, en ex-Yougoslavie et au Rwanda. Ce développement s’est réalisé conformément à l’idée kantienne selon laquelle certains crimes blessent la conscience de l’humanité et leurs responsables devraient être jugés devant les yeux de la communauté internationale, à travers les principes juridiques universels.
During human history, there have been many conflicts during which civilians from various regions of the world have suffered from violent acts. There have been attempts to codify a group of unlawful acts as international crimes beyond the nation state level. During this process, certain unlawful acts were deemed to be in keeping with the spirit of war, while the most violent ones were considered infractions that affected the conscience of all humanity. These efforts began at the end of the 19th century, with international conventions on the limitations of warfare methods and the impact of war on civilians. The 20th century witnessed two world wars and an important number of intrastate conflicts. The striking dimension of these conflicts has pushed the international community to take a step beyond international conventions to punish criminals and prevent the recurrence of new violence against civilians.
To take a step further in terms of the application of international conventions, after the outbreak of the First and Second World Wars, the need to establish judicial institutions with international competence has been discussed. With the establishment of these tribunals, definitions of crimes would have been added to their constituent texts, a step would have been taken towards codifying unlawful acts, and the universalisation of criminal justice would have begun. Major developments in this field began with the Second World War. The first examples of ad hoc criminal tribunals were founded in Germany and Japan to prosecute military and political figures responsible for the suffering of civilians. Thanks to these two tribunals, serious breaches of the fundamental rights of individuals have been codified as international crimes, and international criminal law has begun to universalise. Although limited, individuals gained legal personality before international law and became subjects of it. Hence, the legal sphere of Kantian cosmopolitanism has begun to find its place in the international order.
The International Military Tribunals of Nuremberg and the Far East have contributed significantly to international criminal law. They form the first proof of the will of the international community to do something beyond international conventions regarding the suffering of civilians during conflicts and thus establish a more binding legal framework. They constitute a via-media between state-centric treaties and a permanent cosmopolitan legal institution. Despite many criticisms, these tribunals have been one of the foundations of progress in international criminal law. The two legal institutions that were established with the breakdown of the bipolar world order during the Cold War took these efforts further by adding new elements to their statutes that aimed to prosecute war criminals and prevent the commission of further unlawful acts. The International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda participated in attempts to improve the scope of the codification of international crimes and thus arrived at an interpretation that was more up-to-date and appropriate to the context of the era.
Is it possible to establish a direct link between Kantian cosmopolitan law and these historical developments? Does this evolution prove the rooting of the principles of a universal human society within the discipline of international law? Kantian cosmopolitanism discusses the possibility of gradually creating a political, legal, and social framework that begins at the state level and extends to world citizenship. According to Kant, such cosmopolitanism is a way to ensure perpetual peace. The legal aspect of this thought led to the ideal of the creation of a cosmopolitan law for issues that concern humanity as a whole. Cosmopolitan law aims to find solutions to global problems such as the violation of fundamental rights of individuals and environmental issues, as this juridical sphere recommends the construction of universal legal norms that complement national and international law. It underlines the universalisation of humanitarian legal society.
This research aims to determine the link between certain historical developments of the 20th century and Kant’s concept of cosmopolitan law. It intends to demonstrate that the motivation behind the establishment of ad hoc tribunals is strongly linked to this approach. Within this perspective, the first part is dedicated to a theoretical examination of Kantian cosmopolitan law and two models by Olivier de Frouville that interpret this universalisation within the scope of international law. In this research, the step towards the cosmopolitanising of international law is observed from a fundamental right perspective. The historical period to be examined is the second half of the 20th century. In the second part, which includes an empirical study, four ad hoc criminal tribunals created during this period will be analysed to obtain concrete elements that demonstrate a connection with cosmopolitan law. Hence, this article demonstrates that four ad hoc tribunals contributed to the codification of international crimes and thus supported the implementation of the principles of cosmopolitan law. This research will contribute to international relations and international law.
