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War Crimes Research Guide

Introduction

Recent world events have demonstrated that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are long term problems that have occurred throughout history and continue to this day. This guide is meant as a starting point for your research. War crimes research often delves into associated topics such as human rights, treaty research and genocide. As such, this guide will sometimes refer you to other relevant research guides on our website [complete listing] for more information.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact the Wolff Library reference desk at 202-662-4195 or by email: intlref@law.georgetown.edu. You may also submit your question via this online form.

International Legal Instruments

Overview

War crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are governed by international treaties. Remember, treaties are referred to by many different names: conventions, protocols, accords, and covenants are just a few examples.

Some questions to consider when conducting treaty research include:

  • Is there an applicable treaty?
  • Is it in force?
  • Has a particular country ratified the treaty?
  • Has that country made any declarations or reservations?
  • What is the citation and where is the full text?

You may wish to consult our Treaty Research Guide for more detailed information on conducting treaty research.

Major Legal Instruments

Although not an exhaustive list, these legal instruments are some of the key primary sources in the area of war crimes research. Additional primary documents can be found on EISIL's war crimes page. See the next section for citation help.

Locating International Instruments

The texts of most major multilateral treaties are easy to locate online. The trick is finding the official citation. EISIL, the international law database maintained by the American Society of International Law can help. If the treaty you are using is located in EISIL, then the "More Information" link under the main text link will provide you with citation information.

Finding bilateral and older multilateral treaties online can be more difficult. This is when you might want to consult some of the larger online treaty collections or use a treaty index. Below are listed some of the best sources to get you started. For more detailed information on researching treaties, see our Treaty Research Guide.

Online Sources
Print Sources

Courts & Tribunals

Official Websites

The official websites of the international courts and tribunals contain a wealth of information. On these sites you can often find:

  • Case law
  • Basic documents, including the treaty or other document that established the court
  • Indictments
  • Rules of procedure
  • Information on judges
  • Schedule of trials
  • Annual reports, statistics and other background information
Links

Database & Print Resources

Primary Sources

Recent tribunals have excellent websites (see above) with basic legal documents, indictments and case law. Below are the key print and database resources for case law and other basic legal materials for the international courts and tribunals.

  • Westlaw - International Criminal Tribunal - Combined [INT-ICT] Coverage begins with 1995. This database has case law from both the ICTY and the ICTR. (GULC only) Lexis does not have complete ICTR / ICTY case coverage.
  • Netherlands Institute of Human Rights maintains a database of ICTY and ICTR documents which is searchable. You can also sort by article number, keyword, name of accused, date, type of decision, and reference to other cases.
  • Global War Crimes Tribunal Collection INTL KZ1190.G56 Trial materials for the Rwanda and Yugoslav tribunals.
  • Basic Documents (ICTY) INTL REF K545.I58
  • Judicial Reports (ICTY) INTL KZ1203.A2 J83
  • Basic Documents (ICTR) INTL
  • Reports of Orders, Decisions and Judgements (ICTR) INTL KZ1201.A2 T75
  • Basic Documents and Case Law (ICTR) INTL KZ1201.A12 I574 Electronic (on CD ROM)
  • The Trial of German Major War Criminals : Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany INTL KZ1176.I57 1949
  • The Tokyo War Crimes Trial INTL KZ1181.I57 1981

Note on differences between online & print document availability:

Researchers delving into the trial documents of the ICTY and the ICTR frequently seek specific materials. Experience has shown that not all trial documents are available online or in all of the print sources.

For example, in the ICTR case of Alfred Musema (ICTR-96-13), the original indictment charged Musema with "genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide" and other charges. The amended indictment charged him with "genocide, or in the alternative, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide" and other charges. The charge of complicity in genocide was omitted from the original indictment.

The ICTR website only provides the amended indictment. The print source Reports of Orders, Decisions and Judgements (ICTR) INTL KZ1201.A2 T75 likewise only includes the amended indictment (although it is not labeled "amended"). The only sources that reprint the original indictment (the indictment not including the complicity in genocide charge) are the Global War Crimes Tribunal Collection INTL KZ1190.G56 and the CD ROM of Basic Documents and Case Law (ICTR) INTL KZ1201.A12 I574 Electronic. The bottom line: for the most thorough research, be sure to compare online and print availability of ICTR and ICTY documents!

Secondary Sources
  • The Contribution of the Rwanda Tribunal to the Development of International Law INTL KZ1201.A12 H47 2005
  • Implementing International Humanitarian Law : From the Ad Hoc Tribunals to a Permanent International Criminal Court INTL KZ6471.A39 2004
  • International Criminal Practice : The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the East Timor Special Panel for Serious Crimes, War Crimes Prosecutions in Kosovo
    INTL KZ6310.J66 2003
  • International Crimes and the Ad Hoc Tribunals INTL K5301.M48 2005
  • Internationalized Criminal Courts and Tribunals : Sierra Leone, East Timor, Kosovo, and Cambodia INTL KZ6310.I584 2004

Current Awareness: Jurist

Jurist, the legal news and real-time legal research website maintained at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, provides excellent current awareness pages on international criminal tribunals and courts. Clicking below on the main link takes you to the Jurist news page for that court or general topic.

You can also click on the RSS Feed link for each topic and paste this URL into a personal news aggregator. If you're searching for a news aggregator, you may want to look at this blog entry that reviews RSS readers, or read more about RSS.

Genocide & Crimes Against Humanity

Selected Websites

  • Jurist: Genocide This current awareness tool provides updates on genocidal events, trials, and other news.
  • Prevent Genocide International is a non-profit organization with the purpose of eliminating the crime of genocide. One of the most useful features of the site is a compilation of genocide laws from over thirty nations.
  • Cambodian Genocide Program (Yale University) documents the mass killings in Cambodia during the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime headed by Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979. Activities include documentation, preservation, research, and training. The site includes bibliographic, biographic and prisoner image databases.
  • Web Genocide Documentation Centre was created by Dr. Stuart D. Stein of the University of the West of England. It contains resources on specific genocides as well as broader topics.

Print Resources

Bibliographies on Genocide

Periodical Literature

Periodical literature is a good way to obtain background information, locate the text of a treaty, or find more citations about a subject. To get the best results, use periodical indexes to locate relevant citations. Don't depend just on Westlaw and Lexis.

Once you've identified a relevant article, you might want to see if you have electronic access to that journal. The easiest way to do this is by using the E-Journal Finder, the first link under "Quick Links" on the library home page. The E-Journal Find will tell you if the journal you want is in Lexis, Westlaw, or any of the dozens of other online sources available through the library. Be sure to note the journal coverage - i.e. how far back electronic access goes.

For more detailed information on finding periodical literature, consult this general guide or this guide focused on finding international and foreign journal literature.

Periodical Indexes: Legal & Interdisciplinary

The following subscription databases are GULC use only. For information on using these indexes from off-campus, see our remote access page.

Specialized Journals

Articles on war crimes can be found in all types of journals, both legal and interdisciplinary. In additional to searching broad-topic journals, you can want to focus on some of these specialized sources.

Historical Research

Historical research often means consulting print materials and journals. Use the library catalog to locate books on your topic. In on order to a thorough periodical literature search on a historical topic (Nuremberg, Vietnam, American civil war, etc.), you will need to consult print indexes - most of the electronic indexes provide coverage back to 1981. This guide will help you locate print indexes.

Key Websites & Print Resources

  • The Avalon Project (Yale Law School) Includes laws, treaties and other documents from the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
  • The Trial of German Major War Criminals : Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany INTL KZ1176.I57 1949
  • The Tokyo War Crimes Trial INTL KZ1181.I57 1981 The complete transcripts of the Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Use in conjunction with the following guide.
  • The Tokyo War Crimes Trial : Index and Guide INTL KZ1181.I57 1981 Suppl.

Databases

These subscription databases are available to GULC only

  • JSTOR is a searchable full text article database which includes history, economics, political science, social sciences and other scholarly journals. Coverage extends back to volume one of each journal.
  • HarpWeek (1857-1912) offers full text and images of Harper's Weekly from the Civil War Era and early years of the Reconstruction Era (1857-1871), through the Gilded Age (1878-1912), with searchable index.
  • Historical Abstracts provides indexes and abstracts, articles, book chapters, books and dissertations dealing with non-U.S. history from 1450 to the present.
  • The New York Times Historical Newspapers is a full text searchable database providing pdf images of the New York Times from 1851 to 2002.

Research Guides and Bibliographies for Historical Research

Other Research Guides & Bibliographies

Research Guides

Want more information on war crimes and related topics? These other research guides may help.

Bibliographies

Bibliographies do some of your research for you! They're usually a list of articles and books on a specific topic. They can save you a lot of time in your research.

Revised April 2007 (aeb)
Links revised August 2008 (RAS)
Links added December 2008 (mms)

Page last saved 24-Nov-2009