ABSTRACT
THE INDIVIDUAL: FROM OBJECT TO SUBJECT Before the twentieth century, the belief prevailed that the treatment of its citizenry by a state fell outside the province of international law, inasmuch as the individual, alone or collectively, was merely an object and not a subject of the law of nations. Since World War I, the community of nations has become increasingly aware of the need to safeguard the minimal rights of the individual. Consequently, human rights have become a matter of vital and sometimes acrimonious concern to the traditional subjects of international law. The individual has begun to emerge, to some extent at least, as a direct subject of that law. In this chapter, we discuss the development and content of those instruments that guarantee fundamental human rights. In Chapter 16, we will cover offenses, such as genocide and participation in the slave trade, that give rise to individual criminal liability rather than collective responsibility. Finally, in Chapter 20, we will examine war crimes. In each of these areas, international law has progressively evolved norms that either grant rights directly to the individual or impose a duty or an obligation on the individual.
