Sommario : 1. Premessa – 2. Breve analisi del problema dei punti di osservazione nell’attività conoscitiva - 3. I punti di osservazione e l’“evento genocidio” – 4. Conclusione: il punto di osservazione giuridico.

The Legal Definition of Genocide and the Problem of the Observation Points : Some Considerations about David Luban’s Perspective

ABSTRACT : This brief paper concerns with the question of the legal definition of genocide , ie, and in more practical terms , with the problem about the opportunity of modifying “The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” adopted by United Nations General Assembly in 1951 , which is still today the standard legal definition of genocide . What I propose here, is to join and support the conclusions expressed by Professor Luban the 2006 article Calling Genocide by Its Rightful Name , but following a different line of argumentation. To this end, I intend to divide the paper in two parts: 1) in the first one I will carry out some general considerations about the problem of knowledge , as a matter of definition. And in particular I will try to offer some guidance on the complex issue of the “ observation points”, such as central elements of the activity of knowing and defining a particular object of knowledge . 2) In the second part I will try to apply these results to the question of “ genocide” as a possible object of knowledge and definition .