What does «crimen de guerra» mean in Spanish?
- A war crime is an act that violates the laws of war applicable in the jurisdiction and at the time it occurs. The definition varies according to time and place, and from a strictly legal rather than historical perspective. That said, there is abundant precedent for prosecution and conviction of defendants in an ad hoc tribunal that applied the issues ex post facto, because the crime had not been considered before the war, but, like genocide, found a consensus to qualify as heinous conduct, perhaps by virtue of the doctrine of hostis humani generis or just war theory. Just war theory created a basis for formalizing the conduct of war, but there were earlier efforts. Limitations on the conduct of armed conflict date back at least to the Chinese warrior Sun Tzu (6th century B.C.); the ancient Greeks were among the first to regard such prohibitions as law.