Thursday, June 9, 2011

Sneh reviews Crowe, ed. "Crimes of State Past and Present"

H-Law has posted a review of David M. Crowe, ed. Crimes of State Past and Present: Government-Sponsored Atrocities and International Legal Responses (Routledge, 2011).

Reviewer Itai Sneh (John Jay College, CUNY) spends the first few paragraphs acquainting the reader with editor David Crowe (Elon University) and his "public intellectual, high-profile research" on "the trials of victimized, persecuted ethnic, national, and religious minorities throughout Europe."  

As for the book, Sneh calls it "timely" and praises in particular Crowe's introductory essay and the final essay, by William C. Peters:
Peters offers an erudite procedural and substantive exploration of a troubling topic: how did U.S. military codes, personnel, and courts handle (or not, sometimes resulting in “deferred” justice) command responsibility of superior officers in adjudicating war crimes perpetrated by American soldiers since the 1960s, namely from Vietnam’s My Lai to Iraq’s Abu Gharib, Haditha, and Samarra, and in Afghanistan? 
The full review is here.