Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress. Second Edition by the Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. - Hardcover

by Raphael Lemkin (Author), Samantha Power (Introduction by), William A. Schabas (Introduction by)

From our Foundations of the Laws of War Series, the book that introduced and defined the concept of genocide. Introduction to the Second Edition by William A. Schabas. Introduction to the First Edition by Samantha Power. Originally published: Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law, 1944. xxiii (vii-xxiii new introductions), xxxviii, 674 pp. In this path-breaking study Polish emigre Raphael Lemkin 1900-1959] coined the term "genocide" and defined it as a subject of international law. While the term has come to mean the extermination of a people, Lemkin used it to describe all programs that sought to increase the "Aryan" birthrate while working to exterminate the social, cultural and economic independence of non-Germanic peoples. This study was an elaboration of ideas he first proposed in 1933 in his address to the Fifth International Conference for the Unification of Penal Law (1933), which argued that attacks on racial, religious and ethnic groups should be considered international crimes. Important for the prosecution of the Nazis, this pioneering work helped to establish the framework for all subsequent efforts to punish crimes against humanity.