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Conceptualizing the National Group for the Crime of Genocide: Is Law Able to Account for Identity Fault Lines?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2020

Carola Lingaas Open the ORCID record for Carola Lingaas [Opens in a new window]
Carola Lingaas*
Affiliation:
VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

“National group” is one of four victim groups that is explicitly protected by international criminal law from genocide. At the core of any genocide lies an element of identity. Yet, the fixed group categories that the law provides for seemingly do not conform to the fluidity of group identities. Is the law at all able to account for identity fault lines? By recourse to research on identity construction and otherness, this article argues that the interpretation of the law of genocide can benefit, structurally and legally, from insight into the forces at work before a genocide erupts. In recognizing the perpetrator’s definitional power over the victim group, the courts should increasingly focus their investigation into the mind of the génocidaires and their perception of the national victim group. In addition to discussing the dynamics of intergroup conflicts leading up to a genocide, this article also looks at the jurisprudence of criminal courts on the issues of nationality, national groups, and national identity for the crime of genocide.

Keywords

genocidenational groupidentityperpetratorinternational criminal law
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 2: Special Issue on Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Identity, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality by Law , March 2021 , pp. 240 - 261
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Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

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