Document Type
Article
Abstract
Drawing upon original research into the travaux préparatoires of the 1948 Genocide Convention, this Article advances several claims that complicate the standard account according to which genocide must entail a purpose to physically destroy at least a substantial part of a protected group. The core of the Article closely explores the words “intent,” “destroy,” and “in part,” showing how international authorities have settled on a received and largely uninterrogated wisdom regarding the meaning of these terms, one which is supported neither by the drafting history of the Genocide Convention, nor even by the actual results of the judicial decisions that purport to apply these requirements. In addition, this Article defends an alternate interpretation according to which the genocide label extends to acts of mass killing whose ultimate goal is displacement rather than comprehensive extermination.
Ultimately, any attempt to delineate the genocide/not genocide distinction will involve an indeterminate and somewhat arbitrary line. While acknowledging that limitation, this Article defends its approach as the most consistent with the lost history of the Genocide Convention and also as one that is normatively preferable.
Recommended Citation
Alexander K.A. Greenawalt, “With Intent to Destroy, in Whole or in Part”: Genocide, Ethnic cleansing, and a Lost History, 2024 Wis. L. Rev. 933 (2024), https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/1273.
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, International Law Commons