The conventional historic account maintains that international criminal law (ICL) was ‘born’ after the Second World War. This account is incomplete, as William Schabas's book,The Trial of the Kaiser(2018), captivatingly shows by richly portraying the (aborted) First World War initiative to try the German Kaiser before an international tribunal. However, this article (after providing an overview of Schabas's book) argues that Schabas's account of a First World War ICL ‘birth’ is also incomplete. ICL during the First World War era was but one link in a much longer historical chain. The essay demonstrates this fact by presenting certain elements of the long (forgotten) history of ICL, which provide answers to questions that have been left unanswered, not only by the conventional account (of a Second World War ICL ‘birth’) but also by Schabas's account (of a First World War ICL ‘birth’). As the article discusses, the unveiling of a greater ICL history indicates that international criminal tribunals are not a modern innovation, and reveals the origins of ‘crimes against humanity’, of ‘aggression’ and of the universal jurisdiction doctrine. The essay further discusses reasons for the non-remembrance of the long history of ICL, the importance of acknowledging that history, and the likelihood of it becoming widely acknowledged in the near future.

中文翻译：

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尝试凯撒的（失败的）尝试和国际刑法的长期（被遗忘的）历史：审判凯撒之后的思考威廉·沙巴斯（William A Schabas）

传统的历史记载认为，国际刑法（ICL）是在二战后“诞生”的。这个叙述是不完整的，正如威廉·沙巴斯的书，凯撒的审判（2018 年），通过丰富地描绘（流产的）第一次世界大战倡议，在国际法庭上审判德国皇帝，令人着迷。然而，这篇文章（在概述了沙巴斯的书之后）认为，沙巴斯对第一次世界大战 ICL“诞生”的描述也是不完整的。第一次世界大战时期的 ICL 只是更长的历史链条中的一个环节。这篇文章通过介绍 ICL 漫长（被遗忘的）历史中的某些元素来证明这一事实，这些元素提供了对尚未回答的问题的答案，不仅是传统的叙述（关于第二次世界大战 ICL “诞生”），而且还包括Schabas 的叙述（关于第一次世界大战 ICL 的“诞生”）。正如文章所讨论的，揭示更大的 ICL 历史表明国际刑事法庭不是现代创新，并揭示了“危害人类罪”、“侵略”和普遍管辖权原则的起源。本文进一步讨论了不记念 ICL 悠久历史的原因，承认这段历史的重要性，以及它在不久的将来被广泛承认的可能性。