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World Court Digest



I. Substantive International Law - First Part
7. LAW OF TREATIES
7.9. Specific Treaties
7.9.6. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide of 1948

¤ Application of the Conventionon on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
(Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia)
Counter Claims, Order of 17 December 1997,
I.C.J. Reports 1997, p. 243

[p. 282 S.O. Lauterpacht] Can what we conceive of as amounting to genocide be constituted by a single act of a horrific nature? Or can it only be constituted by a series of acts which, while individually being no more than murder or causing serious bodily harm to individuals or such like, are, when viewed cumulatively, evidence of a pattern of activity amounting to genocide?

13. The second alternative seems logically to be the more cogent. A single murder or other horrific act cannot be genocide. Only a series or accumulation of such acts, if they reveal collectively the necessary intent and are directed against a group identifiable in the manner foreseen in Article 11 of the Convention, will serve to constitute genocide - whereupon liability for the individual component crimes, as well as for the special crime of genocide, will fall not only upon the individuals directly responsible but also upon the State to which their acts are attributable.