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06 Apr Arrest Warrants and Peace Processes: Reflections Following the Strasbourg Discussion
...between the ICC and the AU (for a debate: ICC Forum, Africa and the International Criminal Court). Against this background, moderating a recent panel in Strasbourg—organised by Switzerland as a CAHDI side event—brought these questions back into focus and prompted the reflections that follow. They do not seek to provide a faithful account of the discussion, but to identify some of the key legal points that emerged, to which I have added a number of personal considerations. A first point concerns the relationship between peace processes and the pursuit of...30 Mar Time to Move the ICC?
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...06 Nov Piecing the Withdrawal Puzzle: May the ICC still open an investigation in Burundi? (Part 1)
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...03 Nov Initial Thoughts on the ICC’s Decision to Investigate Afghanistan
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...06 Aug Iraq and the International Criminal Court: Decision Time
different problems, and the role of the ICC and other international organizations is probably not on the top of the list. But it is far from trivial if Iraq signs the ICC treaty, since it will be exposing both U.S. and its own military forces (currently engaged in a desparate anti-insurgent struggle) to oversight by the ICC. This may or may not be a good thing depending on one’s faith in the judgment of the ICC, but it is certainly a rather large and dangerous step for Iraq’s interim government....
29 May Affective Justice Symposium: Other Geographies, Other Pushbacks–Affective Justice as a Diagnosis for International Criminal Law
[Sara Kendall is a Senior Lecturer in International Law at The University of Kent in the Faculty of Law. She is also Co-Director of The Centre for Critical International Law.] In early March 2020, the US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo gave a press briefing concerning the ICC Appeals Chamber’s decision on Afghanistan. As is widely known by Opinio Juris’s readership, the ICC’s prosecutor aimed to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity on the territory of Afghanistan as well as other crimes linked to the situation, which could...
09 Jul Never Two Without Three: On the – To Be Reopened – ICC Preliminary Examination in Iraq
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...