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International Criminal Law*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2016

Yoram Dinstein
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Extract

The individual human being is manifestly the object of every legal system on this planet, and consequently also of international law. The ordinary subject of international law is the international corporate entity: first and foremost (though not exclusively) the State. Yet, the corporate entity is not a tangible res that exists in reality, but an abstract notion, moulded through legal manipulation by and within the ambit of a superior legal system. When the veil is pierced, one can see that behind the legal personality of the State (or any other international corporate entity) there are natural persons: flesh-and-blood human beings. In the final analysis, Westlake was indubitably right when he stated:

The duties and rights of States are only the duties and rights of the men who compose them.

That is to say, in actuality, the international rights and duties of States devolve on human beings, albeit indirectly and collectively. In other words, the individual human being is not merely the object of international law, but indirectly also its subject, notwithstanding the fact that, ostensibly, the subject is the international corporate entity.

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Articles
Information
Israel Law Review , Volume 20 , Issue 2-3 , Spring–Summer 1985 , pp. 206 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and The Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1985

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References

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63 Ibid., at 42.

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72 Ibid., at 132 (Art. 4).

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76 [1973] U.N. Juridical Yrbk. 75.

77 Ibid., at 76 (Art. 1).

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82 Ibid., at 127 (Art. 12).

83 Ibid. (Art. 13).

84 (1979) 18 Int'l Legal Materials 1422.

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97 Supra n. 49.

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137 Supra n. 49.

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148 International Military Tribunal, supra n. 13 at 221. Cf. the French official text of the Judgment, Dinstein, supra n. 128 at 149.

149 See In re Krupp and Others (United States Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1948), 15 I.L.R. 620, 629.

150 Geneva Convention on the High Seas, supra n. 5 at 849 (Art. 27); United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, supra n. 6 at 1290 (Art. 113).

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162 See Dinstein, supra n. 128 at 83–4.

163 In re Hans (Norway, Court of Appeal, 1947), 14 I.L.R. 305, 306.

164 For an analysis of this decision, see Dinstein, supra n. 128 at 203–4.

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175 International Military Tribunal, supra n. 13 at 221. On the correct interpretation of the Judgment, see Dinstein, supra n. 128 at 147 et seq.

176 See Dinstein, supra n. 128 at 26 et seq.

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179 See Underhill v. Hernandez (United States, Supreme Court, 1897), 168 U.S. 250, 252.

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201 Supra n. 182.

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