At Rose Café last Wednesday, Professor Ohlins spoke about international criminal law – a topic I had, prior to, known nothing about. He shed a light on the intricacies and fine print involved in defining what constitutes as a war crime. After the lecture, it was apparent to me that declaring an act a war crime is nothing but complicated:

Killing is illegal…unless it’s in a time of war.

Then it’s legal to kill only enemy persons.

But killing civilians is still illegal… unless they’re collateral damage.

Or unless the amount of civilian causalities is proportional to the value of the target.

How is the value of a target measured?

On a case-by-case basis.

It makes sense, though. The Bataan Death March and the Atomic Bombs in World War II are not comparable. Joseph Goebbels and the Rosenburg spies are not the same. This process ought to be complicated. Before this lecture, I had assumed that there was a strict book of rules when it came to international criminal law, but (thankfully) war crimes are so novelty that there is no rigid checklist that can be referenced.