Part 2 Jurisdiction, Admissibility, and Applicable Law: Compétence, Recevabilité, Et Droit Applicable, Art.8 War crimes/Crimes de guerre

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schabas William A
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Child Soldiers ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
The Subject

This chapter comments on Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 8 defines war crimes, one of four categories of offence within the subject-matter jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Much more than a codification of earlier law and practice, the Rome Statute's provisions on war crimes provide a relatively comprehensive codification of war crimes committed in non-international armed conflict. They also recognize new crimes, such as the recruitment of child soldiers and attacks on peacekeepers. However, they also fall short in some important respects, failing to provide adequate criminalization of prohibited weapons, the result of a nuclear impasse.

Part 2 Jurisdiction, Admissibility, and Applicable Law: Compétence, Recevabilité, Et Droit Applicable, Art.8bis Crime of aggression/Crime d’agression

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schabas William A
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
State Party ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
The Subject ◽  
One Year

This chapter comments on Article 8bis of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 8bis defines the crime of aggression, one of four categories of offence within the subject-matter jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The provision is part of a package of amendments adopted at the Kampala Review Conference in 2010. It entered into force in accordance with article 121(5) one year after ratification of the amendments by the first State Party. Liechtenstein was the first State Party to ratify the amendments, on May 8, 2012. Consequently, the amendment entered into force on May 8, 2013. On that date, the amendment was registered by the depository, the Secretary-General of the United Nations. However, exercise of jurisdiction by the Court over article 8bis is subject to article 15bis and article 15ter.

Part 2 Jurisdiction, Admissibility, and Applicable Law: Compétence, Recevabilité, Et Droit Applicable, Art.7 Crimes against humanity/Crimes contre l’humanité

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schabas William A
Keyword(s):  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Organizational Policy ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Contextual Elements ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual

This chapter comments on Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 7 defines crimes against humanity, one of four categories of offence within the subject-matter jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The classic definitions of crimes against humanity, in such instruments as the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, are vague and open-ended, leaving courts to interpret the scope of such expressions as ‘persecution’ and ‘inhumane acts’. Out of concern with the uncertain parameters of the crime, the drafters of the Rome Statute included extra language designed to restrain efforts at generous or liberal interpretation. The five distinct ‘contextual elements’ of crimes against humanity are: (i) an attack directed against any civilian population; (ii) a State or organizational policy; (iii) an attack of a widespread or systematic nature; (iv) a nexus between the individual act and the attack; and (v) knowledge of the attack.

Chemical Weapons and the International Criminal Court

2014 ◽  
Vol 108 (3) ◽  
pp. 436-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Zimmermann ◽  
Meltem Şener
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Chemical Weapons

When the contracting parties to the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court met in Kampala in 2010 to discuss possible amendments to the statute, the main focus was, and has thereafter remained, on the crime of aggression. In addition to amending the statute to include the crime of aggression, however, the contracting parties amended Article 8 of the statute to include a broader range of war crimes in noninternational armed conflicts over which the ICC can have jurisdiction—inter alia, by including the use of chemical weapons. Although the latter amendment received much less attention from both the Kampala drafters and outside observers than the former, it is the use of chemical weapons that has come most quickly into play in world events. In particular, the use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces in 2013 (and perhaps subsequently) has acutely raised questions concerning the extent of the ICC’s treaty-based jurisdiction, both under the unamended text of the Rome Statute or in situations where the amendment to Article 8 applies. These events have also provoked consideration concerning the Security Council’s legal powers to extend the ICC’s jurisdiction to certain crimes involving chemical weapons that would otherwise be beyond its subject matter jurisdiction. These questions are considered in this Note.

Fighting Deforestation in Non-International Armed Conflicts: The Relevance of the Rome Statute for Rosewood Trafficking in Senegal

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Pauline Martini ◽  
Maud Sarliève
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflicts

Abstract This article examines rosewood trafficking in the Casamance region of Senegal to determine whether acts of massive deforestation committed in the context of a non-international armed conflict can be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court (ICC) as war crimes of pillage and destruction of property under Article 8(2)(e)(v) and (xii) of the Rome Statute, respectively. It examines two of the main challenges resulting from the application of these provisions to acts of massive deforestation in the light of the ICC Elements of Crimes. Firstly, the article addresses the delicate issue of the establishment of a nexus between these acts and the related non-international armed conflict. Secondly, it discusses whether natural resources may qualify as ‘property’ for the purpose of Article 8(2)(e)(v) and (xii). It then offers avenues of reflection regarding the determination of ownership of these resources to fulfil the requirements of the Rome Statute.

Part 13 Final Clauses: Clauses Finales, Art.121 Amendments/Amendements

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schabas William A
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
State Party ◽  
The Subject ◽  
General Provision

This chapter comments on Article 121 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 121 is the general provision on amendment of the Rome Statute. After the expiry of seven years from the entry into force of the Statute, any State Party may propose amendments. The proposed amendment is voted upon at the next session of the Assembly of States Parties. An amendment only enters into force when seven-eighths of the States Parties have deposited instruments of accession or ratification. A State that does not agree may withdraw from the Statute with immediate effect. A special regime is established for changes to the subject-matter jurisdiction of the Court.

Part 13 Final Clauses: Clauses Finales, Art.120 Reservations/Réserves

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schabas William A
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Legal Assistance ◽  
State Party ◽  
Legal Effect ◽  
The Subject

This chapter comments on Article 120 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 120 prohibits reservations to the Statute. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties defines reservation as a unilateral statement, however phrased or named, made by a State when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving, or acceding to a treaty, whereby it purports to exclude or to modify the legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty in their application to that State. Although prohibiting reservations as such, the Statute authorizes certain declarations. Specifically, States may declare the language of correspondence and other details for purposes of legal assistance, and that they agree to accept prisoners from the Court. Two declarations expressly provided by the Rome Statute are, in reality, reservations. Both exclude the State Party from the subject-matter jurisdiction of the Court with respect to certain categories of crime.

Part 2 Jurisdiction, Admissibility, and Applicable Law: Compétence, Recevabilité, Et Droit Applicable, Art.9 Elements of Crimes/Éléments des crimes

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schabas William A
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Considerable Effort ◽  
Repeat Elements ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Article 9

This chapter comments on Article 9 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 9(1) explains that the role of the Elements of Crimes is to ‘assist’ the Court in the interpretation and application of articles 6, 7 and 8, which define the crimes over which the Court has subject-matter jurisdiction. Sometimes the Elements merely repeat elements that are obvious enough from a summary reading of the text in the Statute, but in other cases they provide further detail with respect to a provision, occasionally amplifying its apparent scope while on other occasions reducing it. Given the considerable effort devoted to their drafting and the very extensive academic commentary, the Elements of Crimes have made a paltry contribution to the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Court.

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