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12 Oct

digital information creates challenges for ICC investigators, who need to identify, collect, and preserve relevant evidence hidden in a sea of information that is vulnerable to alteration or destruction, while navigating an environment filled with mis and disinformation. This volume and vulnerability of digital information also creates challenges for the judges, who must assess the admissibility and weight of digital evidence. Focusing on the procedures and practices at the ICC, we recently published an article in a Special Volume of the Journal of International Criminal Justice that considers whether the...
12.10.21 | |

03 Nov

it would probably see doing so as an acknowledgment of the investigation’s legitimacy — it will no doubt rely on Mike Newton’s argument in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Afghanistan and the United States precludes the ICC from exercising jurisdiction over American soldiers. (The SOFA presumably doesn’t apply to CIA operatives, who are not part of the US armed forces.) Oversimplifying a bit, Mike argues that Afghanistan has no jurisdiction that it can delegate to the ICC, because the SOFA provides...
03.11.17 | |

30 Mar

This op-ed by a former ICTY and ICTR prosecutor argues that the ICC should move, at least some of their hearings and trials, to locations closer to the site of the alleged crimes. In the case of the ICC, this means spending some of the $600 million it has spent so far on facilities in Africa, where all of its current prosecutions are taking place. The Hague. . .is more than 6,000 kilometers away. Systematically holding trials at that distance makes no sense. Criminal justice in practice is an intensively...
30.03.08 | |

02 Jul

...the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC in the context of its ongoing preliminary examination in Colombia. In accordance with the ICC’s complementarity principle, the OTP is closely monitoring whether Colombia’s national efforts towards accountability for crimes potentially falling under ICC jurisdiction are sufficient, or whether they warrant the opening of a formal investigation. Recently, the OTP announced that it will use benchmarks for this determination. This post proposes a central role for victim’s rights and interests in the OTP’s analysis and the conceptualization of said benchmarks. Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for...
02.07.20 | |

17 Aug

presumed weak and strong states to the extent that even when the Prosecutor sought to launch the first major investigation that implicates a major world power in Afghanistan, the result has been a strong rebuke from the US government. Even within the weaker states where the ICC has operated in most of its existence, state agents who have been targeted have found it easier to attack the ICC on the basis of perceived bias against weaker states. The pushback has resonated well especially when it is punctuated by sentiments of...
17.08.20 | |

06 Nov

bade the Court a festive farewell. Disappointingly, no planned ICC statement followed. The ICC spokesperson’s curt and enigmatic response to the journalists’ queries (see BBC, AP, Al Jazeera and communications to Benjamin Dürr and Anna Holligan) only thickened the plot. The spokesperson intimated that an announcement regarding the results of the Burundi preliminary examination would be made in due course in accordance with the OTP’s practice. More controversially, he asserted that ‘the Burundi withdrawal does not affect the jurisdiction of the Court with respect to the crimes alleged to have...
06.11.17 | |

09 Jul

of the ICC practice in relation to the complementarity assessment are evident. Therefore, judicial review is required in view of the dramatic impact of the adopted complementarity assessment, on the present situation and beyond it, as the overly restrictive approach adopted by the Prosecutor in this situation may have grave consequences for other preliminary examinations and investigations. In light of the above, a new determination on the issue will only reinforce the Court and enhance confidence in the ICC Prosecutor’s independence, as the request notes referring also to the strong...
09.07.21 | |

06 Feb

to which Julian linked (and I thank Julian for the link), Obama, during the campaign, never expressed strong support for the ICC. He expressed his intention to review ICC policy but always framed it in a way that suggested he had no intention of actually pursuing Rome Statute ratification. But I wouldn't say it's a continuation of Bush-style ICC rejectionism but rather another example of Obama-style have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too-ism. The U.S. will support the ICC, using it as a tool to serve U.S. interests when possible while never submitting to its jurisdiction....
06.02.10 | |

19 Mar

According to the AP, Sudan announced yesterday that it will suspend all cooperation with the International Criminal Court following that the ICC prosecutor’s charges of war crimes against a Sudan government minister. “We had extended our cooperation with the ICC for some time, but now the situation is completely different,” Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi told The Associated Press on the telephone from Geneva, where he was attending a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting. “It’s not even a question of cooperation anymore, it’s a question that they (the ICC) want...
19.03.07 | |

30 Nov

The International Criminal Court Assembly of States Parties has opened their second session in the Hague this week. The Assembly of States Parties is composed of representatives of all of the governments party to the ICC Statute, that is to say, those countries that have signed and ratified the ICC Statute. Of course, the U.S. has famously revoked its signature to the ICC Statute. Or has it? According to the ICC’s official statement, the U.S. is a “observatory signatory.” That is, the U.S. is not a party “to the Statute...
30.11.05 | |

10 Feb

This would give a very, very strong message to those running the show,” Rupert Colville, spokesman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, told a news briefing. I suppose there is some possibility that China and Russia would allow an ICC investigation (Syria is not a state-party to the ICC) even as they oppose a more powerful UNSC resolution. But it hardly seems likely. And there is almost no chance, in my view, that such an investigation would make a meaningful difference to a brutal dictator, and regime,...
10.02.12 | |

23 Nov

...the author.] Following moves from Gambia, Burundi and South Africa in the past weeks to withdraw from the ICC, much thought is now being given, and keyboards worn down, by the international community as it considers what this news will mean for these countries individually, Africa more generally and of course the ICC. I want to slightly side-step some of these issues though and address the seemingly confused narrative circulating on the African alternative to the ICC. This seems especially important given the South African Minister for Justice Michael Masutha’s...
23.11.16 | |