To Regain Some Kind of Human Equality : Theorizing the Political Productivity of ‘‘Crimes against Humanity’’

Abstract

This article theorizes the politically productive aspects of the term ‘‘crimes against humanity’’ in contradistinction to normative political theories that conceive of international law as applied ethics and to Schmittian approaches to law as the medium of depoliticization. I argue that the criminal against humanity must be distinguished from the enemy of humanity, because crimes against humanity provide a universal yet minimal normative recognition to the offender within a global legal order. Analyzing the distinct patterns of agency and authority that arise from rights and crime respectively, I outline the communal dimension of the criminal law and discuss the performative claim to humanity as a global body politic that attends pronouncements of crimes against humanity by international authorities.