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INTERNATIONAL LAW OF VICTIMS
Fernández de Casadevante Romani, C.
International Law of Victims
[Mezinárodní právo obětí]
Springer, Heidelberg 2012, 274 p.
In view of the recent turn in international law towards victims and the increased
interest in their status and rights, the attempt by Springer to offer the first ever
comprehensive treatment of the topic available in English should be more than
welcome. The book, holding a promising as well as potentially somewhat misleading
title of
International Law of Victims,
is the English-language revised version of the
original Spanish book
El Derecho Internacional de las víctimas
that the author, Carlos
Fernández de Casadevante Romani, professor in international law and international
relations at the University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, published in 2011.
1
Despite certain logical inconsistencies and formal inadequacies, the book constitutes
an interesting, well-informed and useful introduction into the topic that no one
interested in the rights of victims should ignore.
The book consists of two parts. Part One, entitled the
Victims and International
Law,
sets the historical and terminological background of the topic. Recalling that
“traditionally, International Law has not paid sufficient attention to victims”
(p. 3),
the book describes the changes that this approach has undertaken over the past few
decades. It also provides a list of the main sources of international law relating to the
status of victims, adopted at the universal or regional level (United Nations, Council
of Europe, European Union, Organization of American States etc.). In a book
focusing on international law of victims, the concept of victims is naturally of utmost
importance. Noting
“the non-existence of an international concept of victims”
(p. 39),
the author offers a survey of various categories of victims that current international
law recognizes. The categories encompass victims of crime, victims of abuse of power,
victims of gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations
of international humanitarian law, victims of violations of international criminal law,
victims of enforced disappearance, victims of trafficking, and victims of terrorism.
For each of the categories, the author scrutinizes available international instruments,
seeking to find out how the specific victims are defined and which rights are conferred
upon them.
The last category, that of victims of terrorism, is accorded special attention – and
also a special chapter. This chapter, somewhat surprisingly, concentrates primarily
on rehearsing the well-known debate about the definition of terrorism, leaving the
concept of victim aside. Once the author reaches the conclusion, in itself controversial,
that
“there are sufficient elements to build a concept of terrorism”
(p. 80), he infers
from it that
“the non-existence in
international law of a concrete definition of “victim of
1
Carlos Fernández de Casadevante Romani,
El Derecho Internacional de las víctimas,
Porrúa, Mexico, 2011.