The document discusses the necessity of fair punishment for war crimes due to their severe impact on humanity, emphasizing the historical context of international responses such as the Nuremberg trials and the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It highlights the need for legal accountability and the transition from a political interpretation of war crimes to a judicial process that ensures justice. The text argues that effective international criminal law is crucial for preventing impunity and establishing a stable democracy through war crimes trials.

1. WAR
CRIMES IN
CRIMINAL
LAW

2. There is a general agreement that war crimes, due to the
severity of injuries inflicted on the basic civilizational values,
require fair but exemplary punishment. The horrors and
victims of wars abounding in contemporary human history
have developed awareness of the necessity of suppressing
the widespread culture of the impunity of war crimes that are
traditionally considered as "necessary" collateral phenomena
arising in armed conflicts (Armatta, 2010).
The Nurnberg trials after the Second World War and the
Holocaust were the outcome of the violent violations of the
elementary norms of humanity and then the increasingly
apparent aspiration of international communities to undergo
legal treatment and appropriate sanctions against interstate
and internal conflicts. This approach is also emphasized in the
Preamble to the Statute of the International Criminal Court,
which states that "the most serious criminal offenses the
international community concerned as a whole must not go
unpunished", that "the effective prosecution of their
perpetrators must be ensured by taking appropriate measures
at the national level and by strengthening international
cooperation, as well as that the states of the signatories are
"resolved to change the current practice of punishing the
perpetrators of these criminal offenses, thus contributing to
their prevention" (UN General Assembly, Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court, 1998).

3. Antonio Cassese sees the overall purpose of international
criminal justice related to the issue of war crimes in the need
of "the international community's response to the rebellion",
namely to finding adequate legal responses of a grave
violation of international human dignity or humanitarian law
standards that reached the threshold when they became
international criminals". (Cassesse, 2005). Međunarodno
krivično pravo, Beogradski centar za ljudska prava, Beograd,
str. 6) Otherwise, as an unacceptable alternative, the
defendant's trial for committed offenses can only be "revenge
or forgetfulness".
Regarding the aforementioned view and, above all, the
retributive approach contemporary international criminal law is
developed into the matter of war crimes. With more or less
success, it strives to adjust the material and procedural rules
that address these civilizable unacceptable parts to their
weight and to establish appropriate criminal justice
mechanisms in the form of international and national formation
that will contribute in an effective way to the goals of punishing
and preventing this crime scene. Formation of the
International Criminal Court and adoption of the so-called
Rome Statute was a major step in that direction, though, as
they will be seen from later appearances, they are leaving
many current issues of application of international criminal and
humanitarian law open.

4. The significance of this subject matter lies in the above-
mentioned reasons of general character and, above all, in
the view that adequate material and procedural criminal law
is the correct way to abolish punishability and legally
inadequate treatment war crimes. The transition to a stable
democracy and the strengthening of the role of the law is not
possible without the introduction of justice and accountability
for war crimes through the key instrument of justice - war
crimes trials. It is, of course, a turning point from political
interpretation of the past to confront the facts established in
impartial, just and professional courts and on the basis of
indictments of highly professional prosecutors.
References
Armatta, J. (2010). Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes
Trial of Slobodan Milosevic, Durham: Duke University Press.
Cassesse, A. (2005). International Criminal Law, Oxford:
OUP Oxford.
UN General Assembly, Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court (last amended 2010), 17 July 1998, ISBN No.
92-9227-227-6