International Criminal Law

[Dr. Ligeia Quackelbeen is an Assistant Professor in International and European Criminal Law (Tilburg University) currently researching problems of interpretation arising from inter alia the concurrence of legal regimes and examining these issues in light of the legality principle and fair labelling.] The Connection Between the Jurisdictional Assessment and Admissibility Test  A second, more tentative, point that I want to raise is that I...

[Dr. Ligeia Quackelbeen is an Assistant Professor in International and European Criminal Law (Tilburg University) currently researching problems of interpretation arising from inter alia the concurrence of legal regimes and examining these issues in light of the legality principle and fair labelling.] On 9 February 2023, a communication was submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP)  of the ICC by the Belgian...

[Judge Zak (Zakeria M.) Yacoob is a Retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.] The Court of the Citizens of the World – a peoples tribunal – was organized by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, relating to the crime of aggression in Ukraine. The tribunal considered charges brought against Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression presented by...

[Stephen Rapp is a former US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice and former international prosecutor at Rwanda and Sierra Leone tribunals.] The Court of the Citizens of the World’ - a peoples tribunal - was organized by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, relating to the crime of aggression in Ukraine. The tribunal considered charges brought against Vladimir Putin for the crime...

A few days ago, the European Law Institute published its final report on ecocide. The report not only provides a definition of ecocide, it also contains Model Rules for an EU Directive and a Council Decision that ELI hopes will both "contribute to the inter-institutional negotiations in the EU on the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and...

1 February marks the second anniversary of the coup d’état in Myanmar. In the past year, the situation for the population has only become more fraught and difficult. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates that 2,890 individuals have been killed, likely an underestimation, 16,000 have been detained on spurious charges, scores have been tortured, many have been sentenced to death,...

[Maria Elena Vignoli is a senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch.] The events of 2022 brought renewed attention and support for accountability for serious international crimes. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine brought images of mass burial sites and bombed-out cities back on the front pages, and the far-reaching impact of the conflict triggered a strong response from the international...

[Ezequiel Jimenez is a PhD candidate at Middlesex University (United Kingdom). This blog arises from his thesis on the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. All comments and feedback welcome at ezejim@gmail.com.] From 5 to 10 December 2022, delegates from the 123 States Parties to the Rome Statute met at the World Forum in The Hague for its twenty-first Assembly session. By virtue of the...

[Dr. Marta Bo is an Associate Senior Researcher on emerging military technologies at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Researcher in Public International Law at the University of Amsterdam- Asser Institute and Research Fellow at the Geneva Graduate Institute.] To hold an individual criminally responsible for committing an unlawful attack, it must be established that they launched the attack with some...