ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the existing war crimes legislation in Australia, which generally reflects international legal developments that relates to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide since 1945. It explores the motivations behind Australia's response to each of these international crimes, exposing the piecemeal nature of the approach taken and resulting in significant shortcomings when dealing with accused war criminals found resident in Australia. The ICC itself came into force, this leaves the potential to excuse many war criminals from prosecution in Australia's criminal justice system. Notably, there have been no prosecutions in Australia for war crimes since the adoption of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the amendments made to the Australian Criminal Code. Australian Governments have enlisted the use of appropriate moral rhetoric when participating in the various international efforts to introduce accountability for international crimes, yet this apparent concern has not manifested itself into enforceable domestic laws or appropriate levels of interest to undertake war crimes trials.
