International Legal Aspects of Denial, Downplaying, Approval and Justification of Genocide under § 405 of the CC
Abstract
The Czech criminal law considers it illegal to deny, downplay, approve or justify genocide (and other crimes) in Section 405 of the Criminal Code. Genocide is also a crime under international law, it has already been prosecuted by international criminal tribunals, and as an international crime, it was repeatedly dealt with by the International Court of Justice.
Due to the definition being taken over almost verbatim by the Criminal Code, in case of domestic prosecution of genocide denial, the domestic court will need to take into account the legal questions that were dealt with namely by the intenational judicial organs. This article identifies the most important international legal points that the Czech domestic judges will need to keep in mind in proceedings under Section 405 of the Criminal Code.