https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117817723066 International Relations 1–23 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0047117817723066 journals.sagepub.com/home/ire ‘A wrong done to mankind’ – Colonial perspectives on the notion of universal crime Sinja Graf National University of Singapore Abstract Current debates on ‘crimes against humanity’ address its history and its potentially neo-imperial effects in international relations. In reference to these issues, this essay abstracts the idea of universal crime from the contemporary concept of ‘crimes against humanity’ and analyzes its mobilizations in early-modern perspectives on the legitimacy of European colonialism. First theorizing the easy union between notions of universal crime and arguments about European imperialism, I then draw on arguments by Vitoria, Gentili, and Grotius. I find that they rely on the idea of an offense injuring all mankind to negotiate colonial relationships between European powers and peoples abroad as well as between European powers vis-à-vis one another, both within Europe and in non-European spaces. The essay concludes by offering three venues for inquiry into the concepts of universal crime and crimes against humanity, namely their political productivity, their historical circulation, and their contemporary neo-imperial character. Keywords Crimes against humanity, European colonialism, Gentili, Grotius, history of international political thought, imperialism, intellectual history, international law, international relations, universal crime, Vitoria Introduction Proudhon famously quipped ‘whoever invokes humanity wants to cheat’. Such longstand- ing concerns about ‘humanity’ as a universalist normative cover for particular power interests 1 have been complemented more recently by critiques of vague uses of the term Corresponding author: Sinja Graf, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, AS1, #04-45, 11 Arts Link, 117570 Singapore. Email: polgsu@nus.edu.sg 723066IRE 0 0 10.1177/0047117817723066International RelationsGraf research-article 2017 Article