The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals

In the past twenty years, international criminal law has become one of the main areas of international legal scholarship and practice. Most textbooks in the field describe the evolution of international criminal tribunals, the elements of the core international crimes, the applicable modes of liability and defences, and the role of states in prosecuting international crimes. This book, however, takes a theoretically informed and refreshingly critical look at the most controversial issues in international criminal law, challenging prevailing practices, orthodoxies, and received wisdoms. The book should fundamentally alter how international criminal law is understood.

A Strategic Choice: The State Policy Requirement in Core International Crimes

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 953-975 ◽  
Author(s):  
ATHANASIOS CHOULIARAS
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
State Policy ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Policy Perspective ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThe article focuses on one of the most intriguing and, at the same time, controversial issues of international criminal law: whether the state policy requirement should be considered as a constitutive element in core international crimes. Adopting a criminal policy perspective, my intention is to contribute to the ongoing discussion by offering a doctrinal and criminological corroboration of the position that answers in the affirmative. Nevertheless, I am not necessarily promoting a normative choice entailing the amendment of the definition of core international crimes, but I rather call for a policy choice of focusing on cases that presume a state policy component.

Recharacterisation of Crimes and the Principle of Fair Labelling in International Criminal Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 788-821
Author(s):  
Talita de Souza Dias
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Fair Trial ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Central Claim

The principle of fair labelling has informed the creation of international crimes and other concepts of international criminal law since the modern inception of this discipline. In particular, it was the symbolic and condemnatory import of international labels such as genocide and crimes against humanity that partly motivated their introduction as offences separate from domestic ordinary crimes. Paradoxically, fair labelling has received marginal attention in legal scholarship and practice. Moreover, frequent instances of relabelling known as ‘recharacterisation of crimes’ may not be entirely consistent with that principle, inviting further analysis thereof. In this context, the purpose of this article is to provide a more systematic and comprehensive analysis of the principle of fair labelling in international criminal law, particularly in light of the phenomenon of recharacterisation of crimes. Its central claim is that fair labelling is as a fair trial right which precludes recourse to recharacterisation in certain circumstances.

s.VIII Boundaries, Ch.33 The Core Crimes of International Criminal Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schwöbel-Patel Christine
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Core ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic

The ‘core’ crimes set out in the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute - the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression - are overwhelmingly assumed to be the most important international crimes. In this chapter, I unsettle the assumption of their inherent importance by revealing and problematising the civilizational, political-economic, and aesthetical biases behind designating these crimes as ‘core’. This is done by shedding light on discontinuities in the history of the core crimes, and unsettling the progress narrative ‘from Nuremberg to Rome’. More specifically, crimes associated with drug control are placed in conversation with the accepted history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to exemplify a systematic editing of the dominant narrative of international criminal law.

Two cheers for the impunity norm

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 487-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Pensky
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current State

International criminal law (ICL) is dedicated to the battle against impunity. However, the concept of impunity lacks clarity. Providing that clarity also reveals challenges for the current state and future prospects of the project of ICL, which this article frames in cosmopolitan terms. The ‘impunity norm’ of ICL is generally presented in a deontic form. It holds that impunity for perpetrators of international crimes is a wrong so profound that states and international bodies have a pro tanto duty to prosecute and punish perpetrators, a duty that cannot be overridden by considerations of cost, including the costs of infringing on the traditionally understood legal sovereignty of states. This deontic reading of the impunity norm is difficult to justify, a fact linked to the waning fortunes of ICL over the past several years. If ICL is to reverse this trend, the impunity norm’s strongly deontic reading should be replaced by a version derived from deliberative principles.

24. International Criminal Law

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Cryer
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions

This chapter examines the material and mental aspects of four offences that are directly criminalized by international law: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression. The discussions also cover some of the general principles of liability and defences that are of particular relevance to international crimes. Firstly, joint criminal enterprise, co-perpetration, command responsibility, and the defence of obedience to superior orders are considered. The chapter then looks at international and national prosecution of international crimes, including the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials, the International Criminal Tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court. As prosecution is not the only, or predominant, response to international crimes, the chapter concludes with a discussion of alternatives and complements to prosecution, such as amnesties, and truth and reconciliation commissions.

Between show-trials and Utopia: A study of the tu quoque defence

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-331
Author(s):  
Katerina Borrelli
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Advanced Argument ◽  
Over Time

AbstractTu quoque, meaning in Latin ‘you too’, is a fallacy of relevance which targets the hypocrisy of the arguer rather than the truth of the advanced argument.In international criminal tribunals, defendants who advance the defence choose not to argue for their innocence, but rather seek to shift the spotlight on the crimes committed by the prosecuting authority or by the opposing side to the conflict, so as to delegitimize the entire prosecution as a form of ‘victor’s justice’. According to legal doxa, the argument has never been accepted in court. As a consequence, it has also been completely neglected within academia. Yet, the tu quoque defence is extremely powerful, as not only proven by its recurrent use over time, but also by its ability to turn trials into ‘show-trials’. This delegitimization of international prosecutions not only does impact the memory and reconciliation of war-torn communities, but also weakens the edifice of international criminal law.‘The Tu Quoque Argument as a Defence to International Crimes, Prosecution or Punishment,’ written by Sienho Yee in 2004 is the only existing in-depth treatment of the defence. Departing from a critique of Yee’s theorization, this article attempts to fill the scholarly lacuna that exists around tu quoque. It departs from a critique of Yee’s theorization and questions whether the defence can be legally legitimate. The article concludes that the defence is legally void, but international criminal tribunals and academia must not disregard its underlying argument because of its political pertinence.

The 2009 AIDP's Resolution on Universal Jurisdiction – An Epitaph or a Revival Call?!

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Munivrana Vajda
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Association ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Universal Jurisdiction ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Controversial Subject ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Penal Law

AbstractAt its 18th session held in September 2009, the Congress of the International Association of Penal Law adopted the Resolution on Universal Jurisdiction (RUJ). For the past decade, universal jurisdiction has been one of the most debated issues in international criminal law, and the RUJ has been expected to shed valuable light on this controversial subject matter. After setting out the rationale and scope of universal jurisdiction, the RUJ regulates its exercise and subjects it to a number of requirements and limitations. The drafters should be commended for their general support of the idea that states can exercise universal jurisdiction over a limited number of international crimes. However, the RUJ does suffer from a number of weaknesses. Whether it will ultimately serve as a point of reference for state legislators and practitioners therefore remains to be seen.

scholarly journals Liberal international criminal law and legal memory: deconstructing the production of witness memories at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

2021 ◽  
Vol 9s2 ◽  
pp. 127-154
Author(s):  
Benjamin Thorne
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Primary Response ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals

International criminal tribunals and courts, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), are commonly understood within legal transitional justice scholarship as the primary response to mass human rights violations, not only in addressing impunity, but also in uncovering the truth of what happened and why. This conceptually orientated article aims to deconstruct legal witnessing and memory production at the ICTR in order to critique claims in legal scholarship that international criminal institutions are able to produce a collective memory of mass rights violations. Specifically, the article proposes an original conceptual framework using insights from critical theory, Giorgio Agamben (witness) and Paul Ricoeur (memory), which it is argued extends our understanding of the scope, and limitations, of liberal Western criminal institutions� (in)ability to make sense of past atrocities.

scholarly journals THE MAIN ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL IN ACCORDANCE WITH PREVENTING AND REPRESSING INTERNATIONAL CRIMES

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Barbu Denisa
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Great Role ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The One ◽  
The Military

In international criminal law, a great role had the Military Courts at Nuremberg and Tokyo, which on the one hand, contributed decisively in their judgments to the shaping of important institutions of international criminal responsibility of individuals as agents of the State, and on the other hand, have demonstrated the need for permanent and strong international criminal jurisdictions. 

13. International criminal law

2021 ◽  
pp. 178-190
Author(s):  
Ilias Bantekas ◽  
Efthymios Papastavridis
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals

This chapter examines the fundamental concepts and notions of international criminal law, which is linked to other key areas of international law, particularly human rights, international humanitarian law, immunities, and jurisdiction. In particular, there is a focus on the concept of individual criminal responsibility under international law. The four core crimes are considered; namely, genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and the crime of aggression. Moreover, attention is paid to two unique forms of participation in international crimes, namely, command responsibility and joint criminal enterprise. Finally, the chapter addresses enforcement of international criminal law, particularly through international criminal tribunals, with an emphasis on the International Criminal Court (ICC).

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