Il crimine di genocidio nel diritto internazionale

This paper argues that (a) the popular use of the term ‘genocide’ often does not reflect what is specifically defined as genocide under international law, (b) the prohibition of genocide in international law does not necessarily imply that its violations justify military response, and (c) past massacres, such as that of the Armenians in 1915, cannot be defined today as ‘genocide’ for international law purposes, although they may be (and indeed are) termed today as genocide for historical, political, ethnological, or legislative purposes. The paper does so by analysing the key provisions of the 1948 Genocide Convention and the most relevant genocide-related international and domestic jurisprudence.