ABSTRACT
The modern usage of the words "crimes against humanity" dates from the Nuremberg Charter, Article 6(c) of which reads: Crimes Against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, whether before or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated. The usage of the term "acts" in the chapeau is curious to a criminal lawyer. In context, the term must be referring to more than the physical "elements" of the offences created. The requirement that there be an "attack" on a civilian population was plainly intended as a jurisdictional threshold for the International Criminal Court. Genocide is the worst, crimes against humanity are next and "ordinary" war crimes are the lowest on the scale.
