Part IV The ICC and its Applicable Law, 21 Co-Perpetration: German Dogmatik or German Invasion?

Author(s):  
David Ohlin Jens

The current doctrines of co-perpetration, most notably the control theory of perpetration, are heavily influenced by German criminal law theory. To some critics, the ICC’s importation of Claus Roxin’s control theory is evidence that one legal culture is having an outsized influence on the direction of the Court’s jurisprudence. This chapter situates the current doctrines within historical context. It lays out the foundations of the ICC doctrine of co-perpetration and evaluates the most notable objections to it, including alternate versions of co-perpetration. The chapter argues that the criticism about the ICC becoming too weighted towards the criminal law approach of one particular system is unfair, since the Court engages in first-order questions of criminal law theory. Nevertheless, the criticism remains that the Court has done insufficient work to justify its methodology and properly ground its importation of domestic criminal law theory within a general theory of sources of international law.

Author(s):  
Werle Gerhard ◽  
Jeßberger Florian

This chapter focuses on the general principles of international criminal law. It first develops a general theory of crimes under international law by considering the concept of crimes under international law as well as the context of organised violence. The structure of crimes under international law is also explored. Next, the chapter studies the material and mental elements of crimes under international law. Individual criminal responsibility and superior responsibility are also discussed, as are the grounds for excluding criminal responsibility. Next, the chapter covers inchoate crimes, omissions within the context of the ICC Statute, immunity, the multiplicity of offences, and finally, the requirements for prosecution.


2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 455-459
Author(s):  
Marian Mihăilă

Abstract The observance of fundamental rules of public international law could be ensured only by the strengthening of penal law. However, despite several precedents assuring the good foundation of international law development in this respect and of the future endeavours expected to confirm the international society’s adhesion to the penal repression requirements, the low convergence of public international law and criminal law reveals the difficulties that may occur in the way of a doctrine persuaded by the necessity to construct a new legal subject in the domain of peace. The legitimacy of constituting the International Tribunals was proved, but on the other hand they were reproached the very lack of legitimacy, being ad-hoc constituted jurisdictions instituted by the winners, made only by the representatives of the victor powers, which deprived them from a true international character and the fact that their legal foundation as regards the applicable law was shaky.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamfuh Y.N. Wilson

AbstractThe author seeks to expose the fact that the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath has many lessons for African leaders, especially that modern international criminal law is committed to punishing perpetrators of heinous crimes. The procedural processes at the Arusha International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda have also operated a successful jurisprudence that has immensely contributed to the development of modern international law. This article looks at the historical context of the genocide, the jurisprudence and case law of the ICTR, the novel concepts that have contributed to the growth of international law, and the significance of rebuilding a post-genocide Rwanda.


Author(s):  
Gabriela A. Frei

The book addresses the interaction between international maritime law and maritime strategy in a historical context, arguing that both international law and maritime strategy are based on long-term state interests. Great Britain as the predominant sea power in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shaped the relationship between international law and maritime strategy like no other power. The book explores how Great Britain used international maritime law as an instrument of foreign policy to protect its strategic and economic interests, and how maritime strategic thought evolved in parallel to the development of international legal norms. The book offers an analysis of British state practice as well as an examination of the efforts of the international community to codify international maritime law in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As the predominant sea power and also the world’s largest carrier of goods, Great Britain had to balance its interests as both a belligerent and a neutral power. With the growing importance of international law in international politics, the book examines the role of international lawyers, strategists, and government officials who shaped state practice. Great Britain’s neutrality for most of the period between 1856 and 1914 influenced its state practice and its perceptions of a future maritime conflict. Yet, the codification of international maritime law at The Hague and London conferences at the beginning of the twentieth century demanded a reassessment of Great Britain’s legal position.


2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-102
Author(s):  
Anton Strezhnev ◽  
Judith G. Kelley ◽  
Beth A. Simmons

AbstractThe international community often seeks to promote political reforms in recalcitrant states. Recently, some scholars have argued that, rather than helping, international law and advocacy create new problems because they have negative spillovers that increase rights violations. We review three mechanisms for such spillovers: backlash, trade-offs, and counteraction and concentrate on the last of these. Some researchers assert that governments sometimes “counteract” international human rights pressures by strategically substituting violations in adjacent areas that are either not targeted or are harder to monitor. However, most such research shows only that both outcomes correlate with an intervention—the targeted positively and the spillover negatively. The burden of proof, however, should be as rigorous as those for studies of first-order policy consequences. We show that these correlations by themselves are insufficient to demonstrate counteraction outside of the narrow case where the intervention is assumed to have no direct effect on the spillover, a situation akin to having a valid instrumental variable design. We revisit two prominent findings and show that the evidence for the counteraction claim is weak in both cases. The article contributes methodologically to the study of negative spillovers in general by proposing mediation and sensitivity analysis within an instrumental variables framework for assessing such arguments. It revisits important prior findings that claim negative consequences to human rights law and/or advocacy, and raises critical normative questions regarding how we empirically evaluate hypotheses about causal mechanisms.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Florio de León

Abstract On 17 November 2020, the General Law on Private International Law (Law 19.920) was approved. This Law resulted from a process of hard work that took over two decades of discussions and debates.1 With this Law, Uruguay becomes one of a group of countries that have already carried out this kind of reform, particularly in regard to international commercial law and international contracts. The new Law 19.920 allows parties to choose the applicable law (State or non-State law) to regulate their international contractual obligations. This reform has a real disruptive imprint since Uruguay leaves behind its old and anachronistic regulation of the matter. This article provides a general analysis of the regulation of international commercial law under Law 19.920 (Articles 13 and 51) and the new regime applicable to international contracts, including the parties’ right to choose the applicable law (Article 45) (State or non-State law), which increases their autonomy in comparison with the previous regime.


2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (04) ◽  
pp. 48-52
Author(s):  
Erkin Humbat Musayev Humbat Musayev ◽  

Key words: international law, international criminal law, genocide, war crimes, transnational crime


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