ABSTRACT War leaves physical imprints on cities. The effects of such destruction endure for decades after hostilities end, as both tangible and intangible harms reverberate across generations. Cities are centers of political, economic, and social life and cultural production; they embody memory, history, and meaning. Urban warfare is not new; it has been a military strategy for as long as cities have existed. Yet in contemporary conflict, cities are increasingly subjected to deliberate and systematic destruction, and their large and growing populations render such violence especially devastating. Urbicide refers to the deliberate destruction of urban spaces, encompassing not only the built environment but also the social, cultural, and relational fabric of urban life, as well as the emotional well-being and lives of its inhabitants. Despite its prevalence and scale, most recently witnessed in cities across Gaza, international law does not recognize urbicide as a distinct crime. While existing legal frameworks prohibit attacks on specific civilian objects, such as hospitals and civilian property, they do not protect the city as a collective entity nor adequately capture the cumulative and systemic nature of urban destruction. This article argues for the codification of urbicide as an international crime, drawing on international cultural heritage law and related concepts such as domicide and ecocide to propose a legal definition.

ABSTRACT Perpetrator Studies has a categorical problem: not in an absolute or unqualified sense, but as a problem of and with categories. In focusing on the category of perpetrators, Perpetrator Studies is premised on categorizations, even when these are questioned. This categorization makes for a field that is fundamentally split: one part reifying and enabling stereotypes and the other constantly reflecting and questioning the premise. In this review article, I consider how three recently published books on perpetrators approach, engage with, and critically reflect on the practice of categorization.

ABSTRACT The Nuremberg Trials are often considered the starting point of the progressive expansion of criminal legal approaches to address serious human rights abuses. Rather than reaffirming the narrative of progress encapsulated by the formula “From Nuremberg to The Hague,” the article calls for a historical analysis of the origins of such narratives. This analysis should dissolve teleological narratives, focus on regions not considered part of “the West,” integrate the perspectives of social and cultural history into the analysis of legal phenomena, and acknowledge the contested nature of what was understood by “Nuremberg.”

ABSTRACT The1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a top-down political project aimed at dividing the multiethnic state and it was characterized by neighbourhood violence. Following the war, scholars focused on understanding the meaning and significance of komšiluk (neighbourliness) in Bosnian culture, particularly in relation to how friendly neighbourly relations turned violent during the ethnic conflict. These scholarly debates have contributed to a better understanding of komšiluk, although it has typically been presented as a stable institution, often negotiated along an interethnic axis, and viewed as a concept that persisted unchanged over time, with near-universal characteristics throughout Bosnia. This paper aims to challenge these generalizations. First, I will review and discuss the existing literature on neighbourliness and neighbourhood violence in Bosnia to address theoretical and methodological concerns in the study of such violence in Bosnia and elsewhere. Second, drawing on findings from my microhistorical study of neighbourliness and neighbourhood violence in Bosanski Novi, I will examine how interethnic solidarity between neighbours broke down after the onset of violence, rather than preceding it. I will argue that, instead of assuming that intergroup (interethnic) divisions inevitably defined relations between neighbours, scholars should investigate these ruptures at the interpersonal level, where they take place, in order to first understand how solidarity between neighbours was lived on a day-to-day basis, and then how and why it was demobilized during the interethnic conflict of the 1990s.

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the issue of genocide in Algeria, as discussed in recent scientific research and by the Algerian people and authorities. It aims to demonstrate how this subject haunts France's colonial history in Algeria, and how it is currently perceived and discussed locally. By the “continuous spectre of genocide,” we mean to highlight both the ongoing threat of extermination and the variations in its manifestations. Having discussed recent developments in historical research on wars of extermination in Algeria and genocide in the colonies, we will examine the case of the Laghouat massacre (December 1852), which took place in southern Algeria. We will also examine how this event is currently being studied and debated by the town's civil society groups, as well as by local and national authorities. Finally, we will reflect on the potential contributions of anthropology to the study of genocide and other colonial crimes, a topic that has more extensively been explored by historians.