International Criminal Law

[Dr Pavel Doubek is a postdoctoral researcher at Institutum Iurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He publishes in the field of International Law and Human Rights.] In the face of unprecedented aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the civilian population, calls are getting stronger for the international community to impose a no-fly zone over the Ukraine territory and adopt other necessary...

[Brianna Dyer is an Advanced LL.M. Candidate in Public International Law at Leiden University. She has a B.A. in Human Rights and Global Studies with a concentration on Peace, War, and Conflict in Europe from the University of Connecticut. She is currently Assistant Editor at Leiden Journal of International Law and Legal Researcher for the IHL Clinic within the Kalshoven-Gieskes...

Announcements ABILA - Crisis in Ukraine: International Law and Accountability: The ABILA ICC Committee is pleased to co-sponsor a virtual panel on Crisis in Ukraine: International Law and Accountability on Thursday, March 31 at 12:15-1:45 pm ET. Given the tragic outbreak of war in Ukraine and Russia’s flagrant violation of the UN Charter and ongoing commission of crimes, this panel will...

[Ana Martín is a PhD Researcher at the Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University, investigating the topic intersectionality and sexual and gender-based crimes.] The Appeals Chamber (AC) Confirmation of Jurisdiction Decision in Abd-Al-Rahman (1 November 2021) sets a substantive precedent regarding the challenging harmonization of two articles of the International Criminal Court (ICC, Court) Rome Statute (Statute): article 22 (1) establishing the principle of legality or...

[Gabriele Chlevickaite is Assistant Professor at VU Amsterdam, a Board Member at the Center for International Criminal Justice and a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR).] Tensions between academic independence and practical relevance are long-standing, and increasingly subject to debate, with little guidance to those on either side of the equation. However, the academia-practitioner relationship...

[Dimitrios A. Kourtis is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Nicosia and a PhD researcher at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.] In Aesop’s fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf a young shepherd repeatedly tricks nearby villagers into thinking that a wolf is going to attack. When this happens, poetic justice intervenes and the liar who ‘cried wolf’ is not believed....

[Melanie O’Brien, Associate Professor of International Law, University of Western Australia, is an award-winning IHL teacher and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.] Following the news from Ukraine, the list of violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) being reportedly committed by Russia is like a checklist through the rules of IHL, particularly the First Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions (API) (which Ukraine and Russia are both...

In an excellent recent blog post at Just Security, Tom Dannenbaum identified four options for prosecuting Russia's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine: [T]he International Criminal Court, an ad hoc international tribunal (whether along the lines proposed at Chatham House or pursuant to a General Assembly resolution), a domestic court exercising territorial jurisdiction (in Russia, Belarus, or Ukraine), or a domestic court exercising...

[Mateusz Piątkowski is an Assistant Professor at the University of Łódź, Poland (Faculty of Law and Administration, International Law Department), Attorney-at-law, and Member of the Polish Society of the Military Law and the Law of War. You can find Part I of this post here.] Under international law, military confrontations between states are measured by their intensity and gravity. To establish...

[Mateusz Piątkowski is an Assistant Professor at the University of Łódź, Poland (Faculty of Law and Administration, International Law Department), Attorney-at-law, and Member of the Polish Society of the Military Law and the Law of War. The author thanks Dr Tomasz Lachowski from University of Łódź, Poland and LtnCol. Dr Wojciech Mendel from the Polish Society of Military Law and...

[Marc Weller is Professor of International Law and International Constitutional Studies in the University of Cambridge, a Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and a former United Nations Senior Mediation Expert. He has served as Senior Advisor in a large number of international peace negotiations and is the co-editor of International Law and Peace Settlements (Cambridge University Press, 2021).] In an earlier...