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Eichmann in Jerusalem – 50 Years After

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Ambos, K., Pereira Coutinho, L., Palma, M., Sousa Mendes, P. (Eds.) (2012). Eichmann in Jerusalem – 50 Years After. An Interdisciplinary Approach. Duncker & Humblot. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-53893-5
Ambos, Kai; Pereira Coutinho, Luís; Palma, Maria Fernanda and Sousa Mendes, Paulo de. Eichmann in Jerusalem – 50 Years After: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Duncker & Humblot, 2012. Book. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-53893-5
Ambos, K, Pereira Coutinho, L, Palma, M, Sousa Mendes, P (eds.) (2012): Eichmann in Jerusalem – 50 Years After: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Duncker & Humblot, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-53893-5

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Eichmann in Jerusalem – 50 Years After

An Interdisciplinary Approach

Editors: Ambos, Kai | Pereira Coutinho, Luís | Palma, Maria Fernanda | Sousa Mendes, Paulo de

Beiträge zum Internationalen und Europäischen Strafrecht / Studies in International and European Criminal Law and Procedure, Vol. 14

(2012)

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About The Author

Luís Pereira Coutinho, Graduate in Law (1996), LL.M (2002) and Dr. Iur. (2008), Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. Teaches Constitutional Law and Political Science. Former Assistant at the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the New University of Lisbon. Former Advisor to the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Maria Fernanda Palma was born in 1955. She graduated from Law School and took her Masters, PhD and Aggregation in Legal Sciences at the Lisbon Law University, where she has been teaching since 1997. She is currently Chair of Law, heads the Criminal Sciences area and is the President of the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Sciences. From 1994 to 2007 she was a Constitutional Court Judge elected to that position by Parliament. She was United Nations Environmental Criminal Law Expert in 1994 and 1995 and a member of the Board of the Portuguese Philosophy Society in 1995 and 1996. In 1995 Maria Fernanda Palma Pereira was decorated by the President of the Republic with the designation »Grand Official of the Order of Prince Henry«. Besides her activities in Academia she is currently representative of Portugal at the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission).

Paulo de Sousa Mendes, Graduate in Law (1981), LL.M. (1987) and LL.D. (2006). Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. Teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedural Law, Criminology and Evidence Law. Director of the Legal Department of the Portuguese Competition Authority. Member of the Board of the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Sciences. Held scholarships from DAAD (Munich 1986, Freiburg 1990), MPI (Freiburg 1991, 1995), and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Trento, Munich, Bielefeld, 2000–2004). Former Evaluator of GRECO Evaluation Team for Czech Republic (2010). Former Professor at Portuguese Military Academy. Former Member of the Supervision Committee for the Portuguese Intelligence Services and of the Portuguese Committee for the Reformation of the Penal Code and the Penal Procedural Code. Former legal expert at the Portuguese Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kai Ambos: Legal education at the universities of Freiburg, Oxford (UK) and Munich 1984–1990. First State Exam in Bavaria, 1990; Second State Exam in Baden-Wuerttemberg, 1994. LL.D. 1992 and Habilitation (Post-Doc) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, 2001 (venia legendi in Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Criminology, Comparative Law and Public International Law). Former senior research fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law and senior research assistant at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Acting Professor in Freiburg, summer term 2002 and winter term 2002/2003, Calls to chairs from the universities of Göttingen and Graz. Since May 2003 Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Comparative Law and International Criminal Law at the Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany. Head of the Department of Foreign and International Criminal Law, Institute of Criminal Law and Justice at the University of Göttingen. Responsible for the Master Programs since April 2006. Judge at the Provincial Court Göttingen (Landgericht). Dean of Students of the Faculty of Law at the University of Göttingen between April 2008 and 2010.

Abstract

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Eichmann trial, the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon organized and hosted an international colloquium on the book »Eichmann in Jerusalem« that took place on April 27-28, 2011, in Lisbon. The main purpose was to evoke Hannah Arendt's oeuvre and to reflect upon the Eichmann trial. »Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil« is indeed an important keystone to understanding Arendt's work as a whole and constitutes a reference point in itself when addressing crucial problems in the fields of criminal law, international criminal law and philosophy of law. The main contributions, recollected for publication in the present English edition, give a rare opportunity for a kaleidoscopic and pluralistic series of views, made possible since her book gives an excellent lesson to experts in law and maintains an astonishing actuality. The present book covers aspects as broad and diverse as facing the evil; the legal and the political in Hannah Arendt; Eichmann in Jerusalem and Hannah Arendt's oeuvre; the Eichmann trial; reflections starting from Eichmann in Jerusalem; and finally, contemporary experiences of transitional justice.On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Eichmann trial, the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon organized and hosted an international colloquium on the book »Eichmann in Jerusalem« that took place on April 27-28, 2011, in Lisbon. The main purpose was to evoke Hannah Arendt's oeuvre and to reflect upon the Eichmann trial. »Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil« is indeed an important keystone to understanding Arendt's work as a whole and constitutes a reference point in itself when addressing crucial problems in the fields of criminal law, international criminal law and philosophy of law. The main contributions, recollected for publication in the present English edition, give a rare opportunity for a kaleidoscopic and pluralistic series of views, made possible since her book gives an excellent lesson to experts in law and maintains an astonishing actuality. The present book covers aspects as broad and diverse as facing the evil; the legal and the political in Hannah Arendt; Eichmann in Jerusalem and Hannah Arendt's oeuvre; the Eichmann trial; reflections starting from Eichmann in Jerusalem; and finally, contemporary experiences of transitional justice.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Preface 5
Inhaltsverzeichnis 11
Facing the Evil 13
Maria Fernanda Palma: The Banality of Evil or the Exceptionality of Good in Totalitarian Societies 15
I. 15
II. 16
III. 17
IV. 18
Paulo Otero: The Eichmann Trial: Evil as a Reaction Against Evil? 21
I. 21
II. 22
III. 26
Hannah Arendt, the Legal and the Political 29
Alexandre Franco de Sá: From the Total State to Totalitarianism: Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt 31
Massimo La Torre: Hannah Arendt and the Concept of Law. Against the Tradition 39
I. 39
II. 41
III. 47
IV. 52
Rui Guerra da Fonseca: Eichmann in Jerusalem: Between the Legal and the Political in Hannah Arendt's Thought 57
Introduction 57
I. 59
II. 62
III. 65
Conclusion 66
Eichmann in Jerusalem and Hannah Arendt’s Oeuvre 69
António Araújo: Hannah Arendt, Adolf Eichmann: Of Radical Evil and Its Banality 71
Luís Pereira Coutinho: The Banality of Evil as Absence of Law 79
Introduction 79
I. The Banality of Evil as Absence of Meaning 79
II. Absence of Meaning as Absence of Law 83
Miguel Nogueira de Brito: When Thinking Is Acting: The Concept of the Banality of Evil as a Key to Hannah Arendt's Political Thought 89
Introduction: Reserve Police Battalion 101 89
I. The Banality of Evil: From the Words to the Idea 93
II. A Secular Conception of Evil? 97
III. The Idea of the Banality of Evil in Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy 98
1. Arendt's Cosmopolitanism 98
2. Thinking and the Political Life 99
3. Obedience and Consent 101
4. Truth in Political Thought 102
The Eichmann Trial 105
Paulo de Sousa Mendes: Judging Eichmann to Render Justice 107
Introduction 107
I. Searching for Justice 107
II. Staging a Show Trial 108
III. The Prosecution Strategy 111
IV. The Jerusalem Court's Judgment 113
V. Rendering Justice 118
VI. Arendt's Thoughts on the Banality of Evil 120
Conclusion 121
Kai Ambos: Some Considerations on the Eichmann Case 123
Introduction 123
I. Outsiders vs. Insiders and the Fair Trial 123
II. The Type of Liability Applied to Eichmann: Principal, Accomplice or Something Else? 125
Miguel Galvão Teles: 50 Years On Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Specific Mode of Criminal Law Retroactivity 135
Introduction 135
I. The Question of Retroactivity of the Incriminations from the Standpoint of International Law at the Time 137
II. Ethico-Legal Consideration of the Incriminations: Retroactivity Regarding Facts that Came to be Characterised, lato sensu, as Crimes Against Humanity 138
Reflections Starting from Eichmann in Jerusalem 143
Augusto Silva Dias: The Milgram Experiment and Criminal Liability: An Essay on the Banality of Evil 145
I. The Milgram Experiment: Results and Impact 145
II. The Banality of Evil and Crimes Committed in Obedience to Authority: Organized Power Apparatus 150
Cristina García Pascual: Can Absolute Evil Be Brought to Justice? 161
Introduction 161
I. What Is Absolute Evil? 162
1. Conceptualisation 162
2. An Evil Without Depth 164
II. Coping with Absolute Evil 167
1. Political Problems 167
2. Moral Problems 171
3. Legal Problems 173
An Uncertain Conclusion 178
Contemporary Experiences of Transitional Justice 179
Pablo Galain Palermo and Álvaro Garreaud: Truth Commissions and the Reconstruction of the Past in the Post-Dictatorial Southern Cone: Concerning the Limitations for Understanding Evil 181
Introduction 181
I. From Radicality to the Banality of Evil 185
II. Toward an Understanding of Crimes Committed in the Southern Cone 189
III. Mechanisms of Intervention for the Comprehension and Resolution of Past Crimes 191
IV. Conclusions 196
List of Contributors 199