Search: Complementarity SAIF GADDAFI
30 Sep Distant Justice Symposium: An Introduction by Phil Clark
...community-based rituals. The book argues that the Court must live up to its own principle of complementarity and show greater deference to African legal and non-legal institutions that – while imperfect (but certainly no more so than the ICC) – are making important strides in addressing serious crimes across the continent. It also shows that the Court’s limited African expertise – believing that a lack of contextual knowledge enhances its neutrality – has left it open to manipulation by African states and other powerful actors. The central concept of ‘distance’...28 May Law of the Sea Symposium: Search and Rescue Operations at Sea – Who is in Charge? Who is Responsible?
...increased human presence lead to the question of the protection of the human element, in particular of the application of human rights at sea. Many scholars have already discussed the application of the relevant human rights treaties at sea, pointing out that the law of the sea, specifically UNCLOS, pursues some community interests, among which the protection of human rights (see a.o. here). Some authors have stressed the complementarity of these two fields of international law (see here). The duty to render assistance can then be considered as the corollary...23 Feb ICC Refuses to Lift LRA Arrest Warrants
...Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, rebels in Uganda remain in effect following news Kampala has agreed to set up national courts to handle LRA crimes. “The office of the prosecutor is not a party to the peace process,” the office said in a statement. “The arrest warrants against the LRA commanders were issued by the court and remain in effect.” The ICC’s position is sound, given that Uganda’s national courts cannot possibly satisfy the principle of complementarity. I will explain why in a post in the next couple of days....
22 Apr ICC Sanctions Symposium: Between the Institutional and the Intellectual: The ICC-US ‘Sanctions’ Communications and the Irony of Critique
[Rashmi Dharia is a doctoral candidate at Sciences Po Law School, Paris.] As of 2nd April 2021, the Biden administration rescinded the sanctions that had been imposed by Executive Order 13928 of 11th June 2020 and its follow-up on 2nd September 2020 on ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and the Head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Co-operation Division Mr Phakiso Mochochoko. The US-ICC relationship looks all set to ‘go back’ from manifest and active hostility to garden variety tropes of ‘constructive engagement’ – a story that, despite its baggage, can be...
28 Mar The Afterlife of a Court: Residuality and Responsibility in Sierra Leone
...the life-cycle, but still one in which the interactive nature of the international and the national need to be calibrated. This renders pertinent the notion of ‘dismissability’ rather than admissibility, to wit, how to balance the international and the national in the winding down, the aging out of institutions, the idea of complementarity in the fade, of the waning of primacy. I was also struck by the idea of the fade as stretched and elongated and, ultimately, entropic. This reminds me of Tithonus, whose wife Eos asked Zeus to grant...
30 Sep Symposium on Phil Clark’s ‘Distant Justice’
...dynamics, the Court has unwittingly become enmeshed in national and regional politics. Clark concludes that, although the ICC describes its work in terms of complementarity between international and national justice responses to atrocity crimes, the ICC’s fundamental distance from African societies has produced negative effects both for the Court and the countries where it intervenes. We have invited several scholars and practitioners to discuss Phil Clark’s arguments and conclusions. Their contributions will be followed by the author’s response. We are grateful to Opinio Juris for hosting this symposium. Phil Clark...27 Sep Events and Announcements: 26 September 2021
...human rights law. Since February 2021, she has been serving as the President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. She served as a judge of the ICC between 2010 and 2018, and as President of the ICC between 2015-2018. Prior to serving as a judge at the ICC she also worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC between 2003-2006 as Chef de Cabinet and later as the first Director of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division (2003-2006). Registration...17 Jul MH17 Downing Suspects to be Prosecuted Before Dutch Domestic Courts – An Obstacle or an Advantage for International Justice?
...comes to gathering evidence, selection of suspects and conducting fair trials, to avoid duplication and wasting resources. In addition, an investigation by the Dutch national authorities will most likely block any investigation by the ICC by virtue of the latter’s complementarity to national courts of its States Parties. According to this principle, states are primarily responsible for investigating and prosecuting international crimes. The ICC only intervenes if states parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC are unable or unwilling to prosecute individuals’ suspected/accused of the most serious crimes of...19 Nov Three Complementary Legal Strategies for Accountability: A Momentous Week for the Rohingya
...was established – based partly on the model of standalone international courts for the Balkans and Rwanda – to serve as a permanent international court that could try individuals (much like domestic courts), for international crimes in The Hague. The underlying basis for this court is complementarity, which means that only once domestic remedies are exhausted can an international case be commenced. Again, like the ICJ, states typically need to have signed up to the treaty, the Rome Statute. In the case of the Rohingya, while Myanmar is not a party...28 Feb Submit to the Harvard International Law Journal!
...my “What Is an International Crime? (A Revisionist History)” article — that will be in print very soon. I have nothing but good things to say about working with the journal. Not surprisingly given the caliber of the students, the journal provides excellent feedback that will make your article better. And if you’re particularly fortunate, HILJ will organise an online symposium about your article. They solicited responses to my “A Sentence-Based Theory of Complementarity” article from Carsten Stahn and Darryl Robinson. And Mia Swart, Astrid Reisinger Coracini, and Alejandro Chehtman...