2007 | A. Gattini; Breach of the Obligation to Prevent and Reparation Thereof in the ICJ’s Genocide Judgment’, The European Journal of International Law, Vol. 18 (4)

In its judgment of 26 February 2007 in the Case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International Court of Justice found the State of Serbia to have been in breach only of its obligations under Article I of the Genocide Convention, namely the duties of prevention and punishment.

This article explains how the International Court of Justice was able to deny any causal link between Serbia’s conduct and the losses resulting from the Srebrenica massacre. In consequence of this finding Serbia was not obliged to pay any monetary compensation to the victims of the Genocide at Srebrenica (nor had Bosnia asked explicitly for it). Instead the Court contented itself with a declaratory judgment as a form of satisfaction. The author criticises the Judgement for contradictory reasoning and  for a failure of creativity in not finding reason to award compensation to the heirs of the victims.