Crimes of Law: Bringing Legal Professionals to Trial for International Crimes

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Off, Henry
• 刊物名称: HARVARD INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0017-8063; 2153-2494
• 发表日期: 2026
• 页码: 369-432
• 关键词: positivism; amnesia

摘要

This Article provides the first in-depth analysis of the oversight and misunderstanding by international criminal justice mechanisms of the role that legal professionals and institutions play in the commission of international crimes. The Article first identifies a particular form of international crime rooted in domestic structures and institutions. These crimes of law produce systemic violence that extends beyond individual criminal acts. Without a legal conception of institutional crime, accountability mechanisms fail to address crimes of law, treating domestic law instead as context. The Article argues that to ensure crimes of law are addressed, charging specific crimes against humanity, like apartheid and persecution, allows legal institutions themselves to become subjects of trial, engaging with structural crimes rooted in legal institutions. The Article then summarizes cases involving legal professionals, demonstrating they are treated like military or political actors and rarely prosecuted. The unique principles of the legal profession create barriers to accountability, resulting in limited attention to the role of lawyers. The Article argues that legal professionals must be approached as a special class of perpetrator. Efforts to hold them accountable must appreciate the dynamics of the legal system, the particularities of the legal profession within it, and the conduct of the accused in maneuvering those dynamics.