In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Symposia

18 Aug

[Nestor Nkurunziza is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Burundi (on leave for doctoral research at the University of Ottawa)]. Much has been written on the crisis with the ICC in recent literature. However, Oumar Ba’s ‘States of Justice’ brings a great contribution to the existing scholarship, both in terms of the conceptual framework used and the relevance of the case studies...

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18 Aug

[K.K. Sithebe is a PhD Candidate at the University of Pretoria and a Research Advisor, South African Human Rights Commission.] Professor Oumar Ba’s States of Justice provides much needed scholarship on the subject of international criminal justice and self-referrals. Prof. Ba provides a meticulous account of how individual African states, particularly Uganda, have since exploited the self-referral mechanism as envisaged in the Rome Statute. Further, this fine scholar...

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18 Aug

[Emma Charlene Lubaale is an Associate Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.] This is an unusual piece of work. As opposed to merely engaging with theoretical rules and existing literature on the subject of complementarity; means of triggering the ICC’s jurisdiction; interaction between states and international law, etc., the author has apparently set himself the excellent task of...

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17 Aug

[Nabil M. Orina is a Lecturer at Moi University, School of Law (Kenya) and a Doctoral Candidate at City University of Hong Kong.] Various studies have theorised the relationship between the ICC (the Court) and states. In these studies, scholars have sought to understand what normative effect the Court has on situation countries through the principle of complementarity (see, for instance, Nouwen). It is apparent...

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17 Aug

[Melissa L. Simms is currently a Legal Officer with the United Nations and formerly with the International Criminal Court. The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the United Nations or the ICC.] Oumar Ba, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Morehouse College in Atlanta, United States has certainly stoked interest...

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16 Aug

[Owiso Owiso is a Doctoral Researcher in Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg.] Inter-governmental organisations are often theatres of inter-state politics. Why then does the suggestion that the International Criminal Court (ICC) may not be any different bother observers so? Well, that is perhaps because the ICC is not just another ‘ordinary’ inter-governmental organisation. It is also, and perhaps primarily, a judicial mechanism. As...

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07 Aug

[Christian De Vos is a Senior Advocacy Officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative. He engages in advocacy across the Justice Initiative’s areas of work, with a particular focus on international justice and accountability for grave crimes.] It has been a pleasure to read the six reflections shared over the course of this symposium. I am grateful to Opinio Juris for hosting the discussion and to the...

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06 Aug

[Rod Rastan serves as Legal Advisor in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, where he deals with international law issues, in particular in relation to jurisdiction, admissibility and judicial assistance. The views expressed herein are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the OTP or the ICC. ] It is fair to say that the...

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06 Aug

[Alexandra Huneeus is Professor of Law at University of Wisconsin Law School, where she directs the Global Legal Studies Center and Chairs the Human Rights Program.] Of the many innovations being advanced by Colombia’s peace mechanism (the Special Jurisdiction for the Peace, or SJP), one is the way it delineates its investigations. While some of its cases are organized by type of criminal activity – such as recruitment...

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05 Aug

[Judy Gitau is the Africa Region Coordinator for the global Women's Rights organization Equality Now, a lawyer, a published author in the fields of transitional justice and international criminal law and a member of Kenya's civil society.] In his book Complementarity, Catalysts, Compliance: The International Criminal Court in Uganda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Christian De Vos illustrates what was intended by the legal rules under the...

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05 Aug

[Jacques B. Mbokani is a Professor of Law at the Université de Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Consultant to Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. A French version, provided by the author, appears below the English version of this post.] Introduction Christian De Vos's book on Complementarity, Catalysts, Compliance takes a fresh look at the relationship between the...

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04 Aug

[Pascal Kambale and Sharon Nakandha are human rights lawyers with the Open Society Africa Regional Office (OSF-AfRO) where they serve as Senior Advisor and Program Officer respectively. They lead AfRO’s work on justice and accountability.] The request to provide some thoughts on Christian De Vos’ book is timely as the ASP appointed group of independent experts continues it task of making “concrete, achievable, actionable recommendations aimed at...

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