International Criminal Law

Events Society of Legal Scholars Workshop: The SLS International Law Section will host its online PhD Workshop on Responding to Complex Relationships in International Law on 13 May 2022. The programme includes perspectives on global governance, climate change, international criminal justice, and technology and is available here. Attendance is free but the organisers strongly encourage attendees to consider joining the Society of...

[Jennifer Trahan is Convenor of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, and Clinical Professor at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs.] Let us be clear why the United Nations is largely paralyzed in the face of one of the clearest cases of aggression since 1939:  it is because of the veto power of a permanent member of the UN Security...

[Carsten Stahn is Professor of International Criminal Law and Global Justice at Leiden Law School.] ‘In times of war, the law falls silent’ (silent enim leges inter arma). This famous maxim by Cicero is often used to illustrate the lack of power of law in the face of conquest and occupation. In the discourse over the war in Ukraine, we witness...

Events Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre virtual event: IHL and the protection of persons with disabilities: Even though about 15 percent of the population have some form of disability, this group is largely ignored when an armed conflict breaks out. International humanitarian law (IHL) does not include specific provisions for the protection of people with disabilities. At a virtual side-event on...

[Dr. Sigurd D’hondt is an Associate Professor at the Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä (Finland). Dr. Juan-Pablo Peréz-León-Acevedo and Dr. Fabio Ferraz-de-Almeida are researchers associated with the project reported on here, and Elena Barrett is a PhD candidate at the department.] Introduction On 4 February 2021, Trial Chamber IX (TC-IX) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Dominic...

[Dr Caroline Sweeney is a lecturer in International Human Rights Law with a particular research interest in the intersection between international law and international politics in Syria. She has published on accountability for international crimes committed in Syria since 2011.] On 13 January 2022, the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany convicted Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian intelligence officer, of the...

[Jennifer Trahan is Convenor at The Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression and Clinical Professor at NYU Center for Global Affairs. Trahan was a member of the Council of Advisers on the Application of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to Cyberwarfare.] With Russian forces poised on the border of Ukraine and the US Government reportedly considering a...

[María Manuel Márquez Velásquez is an LL.M. Candidate in Advanced Studies in Public International Law at Leiden University. LL.B. Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá-Colombia.  She is currently Assistant Student Editor at Leiden Journal of International Law and Coordinator of the Theory of Public International Law Research Group at Universidad del Rosario.] In 2005 while Argentina’s amnesty law was in force, Spain sentenced...

[Merlina Herbach holds an LLM in International Law from the University of Edinburgh, has worked at the International Nuremberg Principles Academy and is currently a Legal Fellow with the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC).] A medical doctor practicing in Germany was discovered to have tortured his patients in Syria at the behest of the Syrian government, turning his back on...

On 19 January 2022, the legendary investigator and justice warrior Frank Kennan Dutton passed away at the age of 72. I was introduced to Frank  by Howard Varney while we were all working on seeking justice for anti-apartheid activist Nokuthula Simelane who was tortured and murdered by apartheid era police. Naturally, Frank’s reputation preceded him and I had heard awe-inspiring things about him but I...

Every nine-years a new prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is selected. The 2021/2020 ICC prosecutorial elections saw the appointment of the ICC’s third prosecutor and an unprecedented discussion about the high moral character requirement. Common sense and article 42(3) of the Rome Statute require the prosecutor and deputies to be persons of high moral character, yet this election cycle...

Call for Papers Call for abstracts - International Law Association British Branch Spring Conference: On Friday, 29 April 2022, the University of Surrey will host the annual Spring Conference in hybrid mode on the theme of ‘International Law and Climate Change’. The Conference will feature a mixture of invited and selected speakers on the following panels: impact of rising sea levels...