Books by Mark Osiel

Much of what we could do, we shouldn't-and we don't. Mark Osiel shows that common morality-expressed as shame, outrage, and stigma-is society's first line of defense against transgressions. Social norms can be indefensible, but when they complement the law, they can save us from an alternative that is far worse: a repressive legal regime.

This text draws out the legal implications of historical and contemporary responses to mass atrocity inflicted by a state on its population. It asks the question, can criminal trials of the alleged perpetrators heal societies affected by these atrocities?