Gregory S. Gordon is an American scholar of

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

and a former genocide prosecutor during the Media Case at the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nation ...

. Gordon is known for his advocacy of the criminalization under international law of a broader category of speech likely to cause mass atrocities (more broad than

incitement to genocide Incitement to genocide is a crime under international law which prohibits inciting (encouraging) the commission of genocide. An extreme form of hate speech, incitement to genocide is considered an inchoate offense and is theoretically subject ...

), and his book ''Atrocity Speech Law'' in which he advances this argument. __NOTOC__

Career

Gordon worked for the

as prosecutor of the Media Case, and the Office of Special Investigations. During his academic career, he was the director of

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...

's Center for Human Rights and Genocide Studies and worked for the

Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention (commonly known as The Sentinel Project) is an international non-governmental organisation based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with approximately 60 members in North America. Its mission is "to preve ...

. He currently works for the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...

Faculty of Law.

Views

Gordon supports establishing a new category of international law, which he terms "atrocity speech law", which would expand prosecutable offenses. The category would be more broad than

(currently criminalized), and would include ordering war crimes or

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

as an

inchoate offense An inchoate offense, preliminary crime, inchoate crime or incomplete crime is a crime of preparing for or seeking to commit another crime. The most common example of an inchoate offense is "attempt". "Inchoate offense" has been defined as the fol ...

, which would be prosecutable even if the crimes ordered never took place. Gordon also supports the criminalization of incitement of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He supports the prosecution of people who are guilty of atrocity speech, and argues that international criminal law has a deterrent effect on those who are contemplating committing mass murder. Gordon has said that "if you don't prosecute the purveyors of these horrible messages, then you will definitely be looking at another genocide down the road". He supported the prosecution of Iranian president

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),

for incitement to genocide.

''Atrocity Speech Law''

Gordon's book ''Atrocity Speech Law: Foundation, Fragmentation, Fruition'' which is about extreme hate speech in international law, was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 2017 and has received multiple positive reviews. * * * * * * * * In the book, he delineates the boundary between protected

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...

and speech which is likely to cause mass violence, which he believes should be outlawed under international law. Gordon criticizes the current state of law on atrocity speech, which he considers fragmented and incoherent. For example, the

and

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

came to different conclusions about the prosecution of incitement, with the ICTR holding that speech that does not directly call for violence may be prosecutable, while the ICTY disagreed. Gordon proposes an expansion and systematization of the criminalization of atrocity speech.

Benjamin B. Ferencz Benjamin Berell Ferencz (born March 11, 1920) is an American lawyer. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes after World War II and the chief prosecutor for the United States Army at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, one of the 12 Subsequent Nuremb ...

, chief prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen Trial, wrote the foreword to the book.

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Gregory Living people Year of birth missing (living people) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda prosecutors University of North Dakota faculty Chinese University of Hong Kong people Genocide studies scholars International criminal law scholars