scholarly journals THE WAR AGAINST IMPUNITY FOR INTERNATIONAL CRIME: OPTICAL ILLUSION?

Cepalo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-92
Author(s):  
Ovide Egide Manzanga Kpanya
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Crime ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Optical Illusion ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Over Time

Deliberation on the imprescriptibility principle in international criminal law motivates determination towards the principle's function against impunity for international crimes. It is indeed a question of confronting this principle with judicial responsiveness, which relies on the speed of the criminal response. However, the current criminal response seems somewhat poorly considering the arising crimes. The poor execution enables criminals than the victims, which injures society. Therefore, it leads to inadmissibility. It is for this purpose that imprescriptibility arises and imposes itself comfortably. The research's conclusion attempts to demonstrate another facet of imprescriptibility. Imprescriptibility includes the impunity's ineffectiveness which passes irreversibly where ipso facto ensures impunity. This condition was perceived as a temporary and partial absence of justice that produced its socio-legal effects. Thus, the uncertainty of a judicial reaction resulting implicitly from this principle foster indolence in society. Over time, this would unsurprisingly lead to a denial of justice and eternal impunity.

Fighting the Scourge of International Crime

2020 ◽  
pp. 241-258
Author(s):  
David Petruccelli
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Crime ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Drug Trade ◽  
International Crimes

This chapter examines initiatives to organize the global fight against international crime, which emerged in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1920s and which by the 1930s posed an alternative to the imperial and liberal internationalist programmes pursued by many Western Europeans and Americans. Police, especially from Austria, sought to internationalize policing through the International Criminal Police Commission (today Interpol). At the same time, jurists from the region sought to unify norms for fighting international crimes as a first step towards a broader project of founding a body of international criminal law. Both programmes responded to the particular social and demographic problems engulfing the region after the collapse of Europe’s great land empires. By the 1930s, these post-imperial and often illiberal programmes increasingly set the agenda at the League of Nations on a range of international offences, notably the drug trade and sex trafficking.

Application of Domestic Criminal Statutes in regard to International Crimes

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-142
Author(s):  
Andres Parmas
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Crime ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Domestic Court ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Special Part ◽  
General Part ◽  
Respective State

In order for an international crime to be prosecuted in a domestic court, norms prescribing punishability have to be adopted in the legal system of the respective State. The article analyses issues that come up with autonomous transposition of international criminal law norms into the domestic legal order, based on the example of the Estonian Penal Code. It also seeks to offer an explanation as to why it is necessary to be aware of these issues and what the strategies would be to overcome problems with transposition. Both issues of the special part as well as the general part are touched upon.

scholarly journals Immunities and International Crimes before the ILC: Looking for Innovative Solutions

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 22-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Forteau
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Criminal Jurisdiction ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Sovereign Equality ◽  
Innovative Solutions ◽  
Over Time

The International Law Commision's (ILC's) work on Immunity of State officials from Criminal Jurisdiction, which started ten years ago, has generated over time high expectations. In light of progress in international criminal law, the ILC is expected to strike a reasonable balance between the protection of sovereign equality and the fight against impunity in case of international crimes. It requires the Commission to determine whether or not immunity from criminal jurisdiction applies or should apply when international crimes are at stake. At its 2017 session, the ILC eventually adopted Draft Article 7 on this issue, which proved quite controversial and did not meet states’ approval. The purpose of this essay is to shed some light on the main shortcomings of this provision and to identify possible alternatives that could permit the ILC to overcome the deadlock concerning its adoption.

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.

scholarly journals The jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for the crime of aggression

2020 ◽  
pp. 374-378
Author(s):  
Nataliia Plakhotniuk ◽  
Maryna Irzhova
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Crime ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
International Crimes

The article emphasizes that the crime of aggression is considered the most serious crime against peace since the Nuremberg Tribunal,which is recognized by both domestic and Western doctrine. Amendments to the Rome Statute in 2010 defined signs of aggressionas an international crime and clarified the rules for exercising the jurisdiction of the International criminal court. Optimistic expectationsfor establishing effective jurisdiction of the court over this international crime have been dashed. As a result, it is concluded thateffective international criminal prosecution of the crime of aggression is possible only if the norms of the Rome Charter that cause themost negative reaction from the leading States are reviewed.It should be noted that in respect of a state that is not a party to the Rome Statute, the Court will not exercise its jurisdiction overthe crime of aggression committed by nationals of that state or on its territory.The International criminal court should serve as a symbol of international justice, which makes just decisions related to violationsof international law. As for the procedure for implementing the proceedings of the International criminal court, it is worth noting thatsuch a procedure for executing the decision of the ISS is double. The dual procedure for the enforcement of decisions of the InternationalCriminal Court is the Foundation of the Rome Charter and represents a new system in the history of public international law inthe field of international responsibility.Thus, it is possible to see that although at first glance the long process of formulating and adopting a unified definition of thecrime of aggression at the international level to succeed, thorough the consideration allows you to comprehend the profound incompletenessof this process. Features of the crime of aggression provided for in the draft edits the Rome Statute, as well as the amendmentmechanism itself, illustrate the real lack of a mechanism for holding individuals internationally responsible for its Commission, as wellas the rather disappointing prospect of positive changes in the near future.Despite the conflicts that arise between the norms of national criminal law and the provisions of the ISS Charter, the procedureitself is an effective legal instrument aimed at maintaining international peace and security. The joint work of the International CriminalCourt and the UN Security Council makes it possible to try cases of international crimes and take effective measures to counter suchcrimes. As a key component of the International criminal justice system, the International criminal Court is one of the most significantinstitutions of international criminal law, which is constantly developing and to a certain extent affects the patterns in the developmentof mechanisms for the investigation of international crimes and the protection of human rights at the international and national levels.

scholarly journals ‘Voglio una donna!’: On Rewriting the History of International Criminal Justice with the Help of Women Who Perpetrated International Crimes

2019 ◽  
pp. 110-129
Author(s):  
Immi Tallgren
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Crime ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Women's Role

In histories of international criminal law, perpetrators of crimes are represented almost exclusively as men. Historiography, criminology, gender studies, and legal studies offer differing views on whether women perpetrators are actually so very few or merely excluded from accounts. This chapter analyses the quest of rectifying the absence (or exclusion) of women by a retroactive ‘search’ and inclusion of women perpetrators. It starts by discussing the discursive practices of ‘becoming’ a perpetrator and the tropes of histories featuring a woman accused of an ‘international crime’. Far from innocuous, various stereotypes of women are instrumental for either obscuring or elucidating women’s role as perpetrators in court practice as well as in ‘academic’ and ‘popular’ histories, serving gendered and racialized ideological discourses which also inform nations and nationalisms. To conclude, the chapter advances an intuitive explanation for the derivative histories of perpetrators, whilst pointing out the possibility of another kind of histories.

scholarly journals The jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for the crime of aggression

2020 ◽  
pp. 374-378
Author(s):  
Nataliia Plakhotniuk ◽  
Maryna Irzhova
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Crime ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Prosecution ◽  
International Crimes

The article emphasizes that the crime of aggression is considered the most serious crime against peace since the Nuremberg Tribunal,which is recognized by both domestic and Western doctrine. Amendments to the Rome Statute in 2010 defined signs of aggressionas an international crime and clarified the rules for exercising the jurisdiction of the International criminal court. Optimistic expectationsfor establishing effective jurisdiction of the court over this international crime have been dashed. As a result, it is concluded thateffective international criminal prosecution of the crime of aggression is possible only if the norms of the Rome Charter that cause themost negative reaction from the leading States are reviewed.It should be noted that in respect of a state that is not a party to the Rome Statute, the Court will not exercise its jurisdiction overthe crime of aggression committed by nationals of that state or on its territory.The International criminal court should serve as a symbol of international justice, which makes just decisions related to violationsof international law. As for the procedure for implementing the proceedings of the International criminal court, it is worth noting thatsuch a procedure for executing the decision of the ISS is double. The dual procedure for the enforcement of decisions of the InternationalCriminal Court is the Foundation of the Rome Charter and represents a new system in the history of public international law inthe field of international responsibility.Thus, it is possible to see that although at first glance the long process of formulating and adopting a unified definition of thecrime of aggression at the international level to succeed, thorough the consideration allows you to comprehend the profound incompletenessof this process. Features of the crime of aggression provided for in the draft edits the Rome Statute, as well as the amendmentmechanism itself, illustrate the real lack of a mechanism for holding individuals internationally responsible for its Commission, as wellas the rather disappointing prospect of positive changes in the near future.Despite the conflicts that arise between the norms of national criminal law and the provisions of the ISS Charter, the procedureitself is an effective legal instrument aimed at maintaining international peace and security. The joint work of the International CriminalCourt and the UN Security Council makes it possible to try cases of international crimes and take effective measures to counter suchcrimes. As a key component of the International criminal justice system, the International criminal Court is one of the most significantinstitutions of international criminal law, which is constantly developing and to a certain extent affects the patterns in the developmentof mechanisms for the investigation of international crimes and the protection of human rights at the international and national levels.

scholarly journals Immigration trials and international crimes: Expressing justice and performing race

2021 ◽  
pp. 136248062110091
Author(s):  
Nicola Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
The Media

This article examines the performative collisions between the wrong of genocide and the invocation of this international crime as a means to secure carceral control of borders. Drawing on courtroom observations, legal transcripts and the media coverage of an immigration trial in the United States, the article explores the performative relationship between international criminal law and immigration law. It argues that this relationship helped to construct and racialize the category of the ‘criminalized migrant’ while establishing the perceived ‘civility’ of criminal law as a primary means of enacting domestic border control. While race was never made explicit in the trial, it emerged in a fractured but significant way, as the horror of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi reinforced the wrong of violating immigration law.

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW AND AR (AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC) LEGISLATION GENOCIDE CRIME AND ITS COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH OTHER INTERNATIONAL CRIMES

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (04) ◽  
pp. 48-52
Author(s):  
Erkin Humbat Musayev Humbat Musayev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Law ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Transnational Crime ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Crimes

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

scholarly journals Nullum Crimen and International Criminal Law: The Relevance of the Foreseeability Test

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-531
Author(s):  
Harmen van der Wilt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
European Court ◽  
Starting Point

This article traces the development of the foreseeability test in the context of the nullum crimen principle. While the European Court of Human Rights has introduced the ‘accessibility and foreseeability’ criteria long ago in the Sunday Times case, the Court has only recently started to apply this standard with respect to international crimes. In the Kononov case, judges of the European Court of Human Rights exhibited strongly divergent opinions on the question whether the punishment of alleged war crimes that had been committed in 1944 violated the nullum crimen principle. According to this author, the dissension of the judges demonstrates the lack of objective foreseeability, which should have served as a starting point for the assessment of the subjective foreseeability and a – potentially exculpating – mistake of law of the perpetrator. The Court should therefore have concluded that the nullum crimen principle had been violated.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document