I'm so pleased to announce here the publication of the long-awaited text by Professor Fannie Lafontaine, Prosecuting Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes in Canadian Courts. Professor Lafontaine has established herself as an authority in this area with a number of significant publications, and this book is the icing on the cake. The publisher's web listing can be found here.
The book is a thorough treatment of the prosecution of individuals under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, and takes on the enormous task of integrating the statute with the complex international law principles on point -- a necessary task, since the scheme under the Act requires that judges both ascertain and apply international law principles *and* use them alongside domestic Canadian criminal law. This will be no mean feat. I made a stab at this topic in Chapter 5 of ITCL, but this book-length effort will be required reading for anyone interested in the topic. As distinguished Canadian ICL scholar William Schabas said in his own blog post about this book, this book "immediately becomes the leading authority."
From the book's foreword by Professor Schabas:
"Few national justice systems have done as much as Canada in grappling with the enormous legal challenges that arise when international crimes are prosecuted at the domestic level. This is the immense contribution of Fannie Lafontaine's study.....Professor Lafontaine's study responds to a need within the Canadian legal community, where prosecutions for international crimes and some related activities in refugee and immigration litigation are an increasingly significant part of the judicial landscape. But it will also fascinate those in other countries, who look to Canada for its recognized expertise in the intricacies of domestic implementation."
Bravo, and congratulations to Prof. Lafontaine on this landmark achievement.
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