Suggesting the body of law that is currently emerging around the crime of forcible displacement from international tribunals may not reflect the realities of the situations on the ground and further noting that refugee law by definition only deals with situations occurring after displacement, Dawson (a Legal Officer at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) and Farber (an Associate with Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP) propose the need for an international instrument that places a positive obligation upon state actors--and non-state actors, where appropriate--to prevent the forcible displacement of human populations. Such an instrument would contain uniform criminal definitions for violations. They review the history of forcible displacement, consider the legal underpinnings for the definition of the crime, describe the experience of the international tribunals with forcible displacement, examine the legal scholarly literature on forcible displacement, explore the question of development-induced displacement, assess the weaknesses of current applicable law through a case study of Colombia, and present their own proposal for an international convention on forced displacement (together with explanatory commentary). Martinus Nijhoff is an imprint of Brill. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)