Dr. Berlin publishes new book on Criminalizing Atrocity

Mark Berlin, Criminalizing AtrocityProf. Mark Berlin recently published a book, Criminalizing Atrocity: The Global Spread of Criminal Laws against International Crimes (Oxford University Press, 2020). His research examines how and why countries around the world over the past 70 years have adopted national criminal laws against genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Dr. Berlin draws on original quantitative and qualitative data, including in-depth case studies of Guatemala, Poland, Colombia, and the Maldives, and a new, comprehensive dataset tracking the global spread of atrocity laws since Word War II. His analysis indicates that in many cases, criminalization has not been the result of concerted government initiative, but of inconspicuous choices made by technocratic legal experts who have been delegated authority to draft large-scale reforms to countries' national criminal codes. The book's findings highlight the importance of professional communities in the modern renaissance of atrocity justice and the domestication of international legal norms.