Abstract
There are to date some six significant judicial pronouncements dealing with the interpretation and application of article 4--genocide - of the ICTY Statute: two Rule 61 hearings; the Trial Chamber rulings in Jelisic, Krstic, and Sikirica; and the Appeals Chamber decision in Jelisic. In the course of these judgments, the ICTY has made important pronouncements about the actus reus of genocide, the nature of the protected groups, the quantitative dimension of the crime, and the concept of intent.
It is now nearly a decade since international justice began examining whether genocide was committed in Bosnia. Astonishingly, the really big question-and the most interesting one from a political and historical standpoint-still remains unanswered, namely whether there was an organized plan or policy on the part of the Bosnian Serb leadership, with the complicity of the Belgrade regime, to destroy the Bosnian Muslims within the meaning of article II of the Convention. The ICJ, seized of the matter in March 1993, has yet to adjudicate the question on the merits.
Recommended Citation
William A. Schabas,
Was Genocide Committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina? First Judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,
25 Fordham Int'l L.J. 23
(2001).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj/vol25/iss1/2