English as dominant language in international criminal law
Keywords:
international criminal law; international criminal justice; English; language; language of the law; dominancyAbstract
There is no other answer to the question which language may be considered as the language of the international criminal law than the English language. It is dominant in all the bodies of the international criminal justice, and the majority of the written sources of this field of the law, although they are written and published in various languages, are used in the English original. By exploring the origins of such a status of the English language, the author easily found the cause to this in the political and economic power of the cultures that are traditionally shaping international relations, primarily Anglo-Saxon culture. If one establishes the connection between certain language and certain law it will necessarily lead him to the conclusion that language affects the spirit of the law, and even more than that. The characteristics of the certain law come with the language; in this case this is the law which belongs to the Anglo Saxon family of the law, characteristic to that language. The consequences that occurred due to the status of English language as a dominant in international criminal law are huge. They can be divided into three groups. The content of this field of the law is extraordinary in the environment, in which the English is a dominant language, and the same conclusion can be made concerning its justice. The very important conclusion is that international criminal law in such a status is inefficient and that because of that the most important role of the criminal law and that is general prevention is invalidated. For the sake of scientific consistency it is important to underline that there are bad consequences of one language being dominant in international criminal law. The last result of this research necessarily brings us to the conclusion that domestic, and not international trials for international crimes, are the only possible answer to all the doubts which occurred due to the language gap between international criminal law and its addressees.
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