Bill Schabas: Genocide, International Justice, and the Fight Against Impunity

Today, we welcome Professor Bill Schabas, one of the world's foremost scholars of international criminal law and genocide, joining us from his farmhouse in France. Bill has devoted his career to defining, investigating, and prosecuting mass atrocity crimes. He served with the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, advised the International Criminal Court, and chaired the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict. He is the author of Genocide in International Law, now in its third edition, a foundational text that has shaped how the international community understands and responds to genocide. His work spans from the abolition of the death penalty to uncovering the racial dimensions of warfare, including groundbreaking research into the treatment of African troops during the World Wars. In this conversation, my dad and I reflect on shared memories with Bill, including a cherished evening in his Galway kitchen that brought together Sister Helen Prejean and Ireland's future president, Michael D. Higgins. We discuss his lifetime of scholarship and public service, the role of student activism in advancing human rights, and the critical challenges facing international institutions in our current political moment. Bill reminds us that personal relationships and intimate gatherings often sit quietly behind the most important public work, and that rigorous scholarship must always serve the pursuit of justice. SHOW NOTES: Episode Transcript: Full transcript (PDF) available here. Further Reading & Viewing: Genocide in International Law by William Schabas (3rd edition) In Memoriam by Alice Winn (novel about WWI) Dead Man Walking Sister: Documentary film about Sister Helen Organizations & Resources Musicians for Human Rights University of Galway (formerly National University of Ireland, Galway): Irish Centre for Human Rights