The Tokyo International Military Tribunal: A Reappraisal by Neil Boister and Robert Cryer

Date01 March 2009
Published date01 March 2009
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2009.00746_2.x
AuthorMichael J. Kelly
degree of coherence and e conomic, social and cultu ral rights are often hampered
by weak enforcement measures at the international level, it is clear that a discus-
sion of these r ights would have facilitated a more balanced conclusion to thi s
topic.
International law does not exist in a vacuum. Lowe believes that extra-legal
concepts such as ‘fairness’ and ‘equity’ and ‘soft law’ principles ‘are inextricably
intertwinedwith speci¢cally legal norms in the application of the law (97). Con-
sequently, he appreciatesthat international lawexists within a wider social context
and it must draw on ‘a much broader range of factors and processes than bear upon
the creation of rules of law’ (98).International lawis closely associated withwider
normative developments originating in the pol itical background (pa rticularly in
relation to human rights and environmental protection). This connection is
demonstrated by the way in which the notion of sustainable development gradu-
ated from an amorphous political aspiration to a legal concept used to interpret
the general principles of international law. Nonetheless, despite considerable evi-
dence of normative cross-fertilisation, international law’s contribution to ful¢ll-
ing the aims of the purposiveprojects identi¢edabove remains fairly limited.This
leads the author to the conclusion that international lawyers ‘o¡er one way of
goingaboutresolvingsomeofthemostcrucialproblemsthatfacetheworld.
But it is only one among many. There are many times when it is much better to
call upon a politician, ora priest, or a doctor,or a plumber’(290).This is undoubt-
edly true. However, many international lawyers would question Lowes decision
to adopta narrow readingof international law for thepurpose of this short, intro-
ductorytext.The decision can be defendedon the basis that itallows the authorto
o¡er a more coherent viewof this vast ¢eld of law. Even so, the absence of a chap-
ter on inter national human right s law diminishes the books explanatory power as
this topic, perhapsmore than anyother, represents the Zeitgeist of the international
legal proje ct.
Stephen Allen
n
Neil B oister an d Robert Cryer, The Tokyo International Military Tribunal: A
Reappraisal,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, 350 pp, hb d60.00.
Neil Boisterand Robert Cryer’s new tome on the post-War trials of Japanese war
criminals in 1946 is entitledTheTokyo International MilitaryTribunal: A Reappraisal.
Indeed,a successful, topical and engagingreappraisal itproves tobe.While there is
a wealth of material available on the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at
Nuremberg, there is comparatively little treatment, especially in the legal acad-
emy, of the IMTfor the Far East,as it was known. Boister and Cryer identify this
as the chief motivator bringing them to treat theTokyo IMTi n far greater detail
than it has been. They do so with a Japanese guide throughthe Japanese literature
n
School of Law,Brunel University
Reviews
318 r2009 The Authors.Journal Compilation r2009 The Modern LawReview Limited.
(2009) 72(2) 313^329

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