The Americas in and before a Century of International Criminal Law

Dominant accounts have largely excluded actors from the Americas, other than the United States, from the history of international criminal law. This chapter does not attempt to introduce these exclusions into the established celebratory narrative. Instead, it explores how and why American actors have promoted, resisted, ignored, been affected, or been ignored by different efforts to implement or expand criminal justice in and through international law since the end of World War I until the present. In this way, this chapter presents a counter-history of international criminal law in and from the Americas, unveiling overlooked discontinuities and illuminating the changing political stakes involved in these projects.