Law and Morals on the Failure of an Able Bystander to Protect Victims Against Genocide

Nobuo Hayashi specializes in the law of armed conflict, particularly the fundamental principles, conduct of hostilities and protection of victims; international criminal law, especially war crimes and modes of liability including command/superior responsibility; and public international law, in particular recourse to force and state responsibility. He brings with him more than twelve years of experience performing advanced research, advising international prosecutors, authoring court submissions, teaching at universities and publishing scholarly articles in the aforementioned areas as well as other related fields. He is also a Visiting Professor at the International University of Japan (2005-present) and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Turin Law Faculty/UN Interregional Criminal Justice Research Institute (2007-present).

The responsibility to protect victims cases of genocide by a third party, i.e. responsibility of bystanders, was recently considered by the Dutch court in the Mothers of Srebrenica et al v. State of The Netherlands and the United Nations. In his open lecture, Mr. Hayashi will discuss whether there is a legal and moral basis to hold bystanders responsible for failure to prevent the crime of Genocide.