scholarly journals The Classification of Armed Conflicts by International Criminal Courts and Tribunals

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-668
Author(s):  
Rogier Bartels
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Classification Problems ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Scope Of Application

This article analyses how international criminal courts and tribunals have pronounced on the contextual elements of their respective war crimes provisions. A comprehensive overview of the way these institutions treated the material scope of application of ihl shows that the ad hoc tribunals tended to avoid classification as either international or non-international armed conflict​, and merely found that a generic ‘armed conflict’ existed at the relevant​ time. The icc shows a tendency to classify situations as non-international armed conflicts without considering whether the situation concerned may instead (or at the same time) qualify as an international armed conflict. Non-international​ armed conflict is often, mistakenly, treated as a residual regime. Incorrect conflict classification may​ affect ihl’s scope of application, and negatively impact on an accused’s fair trial​ rights under international criminal law. The author proposes a fresh look at the​ icc’s legal framework to solve conflict classification​ problems.

scholarly journals International criminal law: Between law and politics

2013 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-67
Author(s):  
Dragan Jovasevic
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Law And Politics

Crimes against international law are committed by violating the rules of international humanitarian law during wars or armed conflicts. The perpetrators of these crimes are under the jurisdiction of international criminal courts (military or civil, permanent or ad hoc). The process of the commission of crimes against international law may comprise several different phases or stadiums. Moreover, such criminal offences rarely appear as the results of only one person?s activities. On the contrary, in numerous cases of these criminal offences, accomplice appears as a form of collective participation of several persons in the commission of one or more crimes against international law. All these facts represent grounds for the specific type of criminal responsibility of the perpetrators of crimes against international law. It is a object of regulation international criminal law about whose characteristics converse this article.

International Criminal Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 466-490
Author(s):  
Hirad Abtahi ◽  
Philippe Kirsch
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Common System ◽  
Substantive Law ◽  
Judicial Assistance

By virtue of its longevity, territorial scope, mandate, and resources, the UN has been pivotal in the development of international criminal justice. While its contribution has been mostly institutional, in terms of genesis, establishment, and functioning of international and hybrid criminal courts, the UN has also shaped their procedural and substantive law. Starting with the first to be established—the ad hoc tribunals—the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter VII, adopted the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) statutes and fully managed them. To a lesser extent, the same could be said of Timor Leste’s Special Panel for Serious Crimes. Regarding the creation of hybrid criminal courts, that is, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), and Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), the UN served as a bilateral treaty-making forum for the negotiation and conclusion of UN-member states’ agreements. Through the ICTY completion strategy and rule 11bis, the UN also internationalized domestic courts (War Crimes Chambers) to enhance national judicial capacity building to prosecute international crimes. Finally, the UN served as the ultimate multilateral treaty-making body in the ICC’s half-century-long creation; starting with the Genocide Convention, and continuing with the ILC and subsequent negotiations leading to the adoption of the ICC Statute, which created a complex institutional and jurisdictional relationship with the UN. Institutionally, this has included cooperation and judicial assistance, dispute settlement functions, UN treaty functions, and adherence to the UN common system. Jurisdictionally, this has involved Chapter VII referrals and deferrals and jurisdiction over a range of crimes close to other UN created tribunals.

The notion of “protracted armed conflict” in the Rome Statute and the termination of armed conflicts under international law: An analysis of select issues

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (912) ◽  
pp. 1091-1115
Author(s):  
Dustin A. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
General Category ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Principles And Standards

AbstractLegal controversies and disagreements have arisen about the timing and duration of numerous contemporary armed conflicts, not least regarding how to discern precisely when those conflicts began and when they ended (if indeed they have ended). The existence of several long-running conflicts – some stretching across decades – and the corresponding suffering that they entail accentuate the stakes of these debates. To help shed light on some select aspects of the duration of contemporary wars, this article analyzes two sets of legal issues: first, the notion of “protracted armed conflict” as formulated in a war-crimes-related provision of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and second, the rules, principles and standards laid down in international humanitarian law and international criminal law pertaining to when armed conflicts have come to an end. The upshot of the analysis is that under existing international law, there is no general category of “protracted armed conflict”; that the question of whether to pursue such a category raises numerous challenges; and that several dimensions of the law concerning the end of armed conflict are unsettled.

Judging International Criminal Justice in the Occupied Territories

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 827-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Malekian
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
The Gaza Strip

Analysing the philosophy of criminal justice and international criminal jurisdiction is indeed very complex. At a minimum, one has to be familiar with both common law and civil law systems. Examining the Gaza Strip situation is also simultaneously a very sophisticated task. It needs, to some extent, an understanding, not only of natural and positive law, but also of many principles and cultural heritages of, at least, two ethnic groups, the Palestinians, and the Jews. It is not certainly a question of religious theories, but the potentiality of rightful co-existence. It also requires understanding why these very two old groups have been, since the creation of Israel, constantly suffering from serious armed conflicts. The Gaza crimes are some of the most recent recognized crimes committed against the population of occupied territories. The intention of this article is to re-examine the historical creation of the State of Israel, the influence of the politicians of the United Kingdom in its creation, the murder of European Jews and the killing of physical and psychological integrity of Palestinians under the authority of Israeli governments. The article deals with some of the most significant norms of international criminal law and human rights law that ought to be respected in national or international conflicts regardless of the target of attack. It deals with the concept of criminal responsibility of individuals under the law of international criminal courts.

The International Legal Status of Armed Groups: Can One Be Determined Outside the Scope of Armed Conflict?

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Gal
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
International Legal Personality

In 2016 Daragh Murray published his book Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Armed Groups (Hart 2016). By way of distinction from many other contributions on this widely discussed topic, Murray tries to provide the reader with a complete overview of the legal framework that enables armed groups to acquire international legal status, and preferably outside the framework of armed conflict. He walks the reader through the path of international legal personality, leading towards the acknowledgement of armed groups as addressees of the law. Murray's attempt is courageous, interesting and innovative, but it has its shortcomings. These include his reliance on international criminal law as a source for defining armed groups, and his insistence on stepping outside international humanitarian law. Nonetheless, his contribution is essential for those who wish to include even more armed groups on the international plane.

s.I Actors, Ch.4 The Creation of an AD Hoc Elite: And the Value of International Criminal Law Expertise on a Global Market

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christensen Mikkel Jarle
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
Global Market ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Management Positions

This chapter focuses on a key actor whose centrality has gone largely unnoticed: the new professional elite within and around the international criminal courts. This elite is composed of individuals who have accumulated high degrees of professional and symbolic capital within international criminal law (ICL) that allow them to shape the discipline itself. This chapter carefully traces the genesis and development of the new professional elite that emerged from four different starting points: legal practice; diplomacy; human rights (in particular NGOs recalibrated towards international criminal justice); and academia. On the basis of this mixed expertise, the ICL elite was characterized by holding management positions in the international criminal courts or building positions in diplomacy, advocacy or academia from where they helped construct (and criticize) the symbolism of this field. While they had crucial impact on the fight against impunity, the analysis also shows that this new elite, in particular those working in the international criminal courts, did not necessarily have high professional value on a broader market of international law and governance, unless they limited investment in ICL to a short period. As such, the elite of ICL is caught between having influence in a field of law that has remained politically controversial and subject to changes, and investing their expertise in other walks of life where it is prone to suffer depreciation.

The ictr and Its Contribution to the Revivification of International Criminal Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 231-246
Author(s):  
Emily Crawford
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Case Law ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Legal Responses ◽  
The Law

In this article, Emily Crawford explores one set of key institutional and legal responses to, and consequences of, the Rwanda genocide – the ictr and the revival of icl that the ictr and the icty heralded. Tracing the development of the concept and institutions of icl, Crawford observes how the case law of the [ad hoc] tribunals, and the ictr in particular, were pivotal in progressively developing the international law of genocide, and the law of non-international armed conflict’.

scholarly journals Gender and Armed Conflict

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Chinkin
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
Gender Specific

This chapter examines the gender-specific harms suffered by women in armed conflict and the international legal framework for responding to them. It discusses how rape and other forms of sexual assault against women during armed conflict have become visible and acquired higher priority within the international legal order since the early 1990s because of feminist activism and intervention. This chapter also highlights legislative and jurisprudential developments that contributed to the increased protection of women during armed conflict. These include the creation of thead hocinternational criminal tribunals, the United Nations Security Council resolutions on ‘women, peace and security’, and the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

scholarly journals Individual Criminal Responsibility for Violations of International Humanitarian Law during non-International Armed Conflict

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Mahmood Khalil Jaffar
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
The Law ◽  
Individual Criminal Responsibility

         At a time when non-international armed conflicts increase, the importance of studying the application of international humanitarian law in these disputes increases. Criminal responsibility and the consequent effects of violations of international humanitarian law are considered a way prescribed by the law to ensure respect in international armed conflicts and its applicability has been proven.            Jurisprudence and judicial decisions issued by criminal courts confirm possibility of strengthening individual criminal responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law applicable in non-international armed conflicts despite the fact that the international humanitarian law applicable to non-international armed conflicts does not contain mechanisms from which international criminal responsibility of those accused of committing violations arise.

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