The Principle of Legality in International and Comparative Criminal Law

This book fills a major gap in the scholarly literature concerning international criminal law, comparative criminal law, and human rights law. The principle of legality (non-retroactivity of crimes and punishments and related doctrines) is fundamental to criminal law and human rights law. Yet this is the first book-length study of the status of legality in international law – in international criminal law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law.

This is also the first book to survey legality/non-retroactivity in all national constitutions, developing the patterns of implementation of legality in the various legal systems such as Common Law, Civil Law, Islamic Law, and Asian Law around the world. This is a necessary book for any scholar, practitioner, and library in the area of international, criminal, comparative, human rights, or international humanitarian law.

• Only book available about the most basic idea in criminal law - an act can be punished only if it has already been declared a crime
• Addresses the implementation of this idea in all of the countries of the world, in international human rights law and in international criminal law
• Since Nuremberg, this issue has been a hot topic in human rights and criminal law thinking but has escaped extensive study until now