Geoffrey Robertson’s new edition of his magisterial Crimes Against Humanity demonstrates exactly why popular culture in the murderous twentieth century opted for a Seven Samurai (or Magnificent Seven) version of retribution for crimes inflicted on peoples. It was so much more exciting – and cathartic – to watch a charismatic band of ad hoc avengers wreak rough justice than to wait upon the grinding-small processes of the law. But it is the compensating virtue of Robertson’s book that it makes the convincing case for those legal processes.