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International Criminal Law Notes
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International Criminal Law Notes - Y2
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International Criminal LawLecture 1
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
1:06 PM
FOUNDATIONS AND PRINCIPLES
Where does ICL fit in?
• Public international law
o Increase relations between the states
o Montevideo convention
• International human rights law
o State granting basic fundamental human conditions to person in its territory
• International criminal law
o No state; making sure that persons who commit international crimes against other
persons are investigated, prosecuted and punished
o Relates to persons for the benefit of persons
• ICL is a branch of PIL, so its sources correspond to those of PIL
o 38 UNC, 21 ICC
• ICL Is crossroad of
o PIL
• Immunity, extradition treaties
o IHL
• Conduct prohibited in war
o IHRL
• Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, torture
o Domestic Law
• In dubio pro reo, nullum crimen sine lege, principle of legality
Consolidation of ICL
• History
o Established as a subject in 1993/1994 with the creation of ad hoc tribunals (ICTY & ICTR)
o First world war
• WWI constitutes the first attempt to attribute criminal responsibility for
international crimes, but it failed to do so due to enforcement issues (political)
§ Allies established 15 people commission to investigate two factors
• Who was responsible for the outbreak of war?
• Central powers were to blame
• Crime of aggression
• Had there been breaches of IHL?
• Yes
• War crimes
• Solution: prosecute the most responsible (major concern in ICL -
people who have planned, ordered, etc.)
§ A special tribunal is established
• In the treaty of Versailles
• To prosecute Kaiser Wilhelm II
• Refuge in NL
§ Netherlands gave refuge to the Kaiser
,o Second world war
• Establishment of Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals are the first examples of
internaitonal criminal courts; the principle of individual criminal responsibility for
international crimes was established
• Churchill wanted to kill the Nazis
§ In the end agreed there should be a trial (Roosevelt and Stalin)
• Fundamental differences in how to conduct the trials
• Stalin: purpose is to sentence
• Roosevelt: prosecute, defence, sentence
• London Agreement 1945
• Nuremburg Tribunal composition
§ 8 allied judges
• 22 defendants
• 3 acquitted
• 7 prison
• 12 death penalty
• Trial breached the principle of nullum crimen sine lege (cannot be
punished unless there is a specific crime)
• Argument: substantive justice principle
§ It is inconsiderable to think that the people committing
the crimes did not know that killing was not a crime;
making them disappear was not a crime; even though it
was not criminalized, it would be more unfair to leave
these crimes unpunished than to punish them for war
crime that has not been properly interpreted yet (nullum
crimen sine lege)
• International military tribunal for the far east (Tokyo war crimes tribunal Tokyo
military tribunal)
§ Treaty of Potsdam, principle 10
• Stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals
§ Historical legacy
• There was a Japanese general conspiracy to impose its authority on
the rest of Asia
• Responsible for a vast amount of war crimes
• Japan was responsible for campaign of aggression for taking
over Asia and Japanese army responsible for big amount of war
crimes (when Japanese army took power over capital of china)
• Fiercely criticized for being example of "Victor's justice"
• Only trial people who were fighting against you (the victor)
§ Nagasaki
§ Hiroshima
o The Gestation Period
• The 50 years between the Nuremburg and Tokyo tribunals and those for the
former Yugoslavia and Rwanda represented a gestation period (and not a break) in
the development of international criminal law. Some persons responsible for
international crimes continued to be prosecuted (at domestic courts). Examples:
§ Adolf Eichmann
• Lieutenant of Gestapo in charge of project "evacuation of Jews"
(death)
• Escaped after WW2
• March 21 1960
, § "Ricardo Klement" had a wedding anniversary, how they
established it was him
• Taken to Jerusalem High Court (because crime
against Jews)
• Law for crimes against the Jews
• Defense strategy
• Nullum crimen sine lege
• Illegal detention
• "I was just following orders"
§ Not justification
§ Might be mitigating factor (of sentence, not of culpability)
• Israel did not even exist as a State at the time (law did not exist)
• Key points
• Substantive justice principle
§ Nullum crimen sine lege is a principle of justice. The
attacker must know that what he is doing was wrong and,
so far from being unfair to punish him, it would be more
unjust to allow his wrongs to go unpunished
• Principle of Universal Criminal Jurisdiction
§ This refers to the principle allowing or requiring a state to
bring criminal proceedings in respect of certain crimes
irrespective of the location of the crime and the
nationality of the perpetrator or the victim
§ Klaus Barbie
• Joined the SS
• The butcher of Lyon
• Dismantle la resistance
§ Torture family, neighbors, friends , anyone to know
information - send to concentration camps
§ 1944 - after he knew they lost the war
• Orphanage in French town
• Kidnapped the kids, sent them to Auschwitz to kill
them
• Went to the US until 1951 - Bolivia
• 30+ years, adviser to government
• Deported to France
• Tried in France and appealed his sentence in Court of Cassation
§ Did not deny committing crimes, "but that was 40 years
ago"
• Key points
• Crimes against humanity do not prescribe
o UNSC Resolution 827 (1993) ICTY
o UNSC Resolution 955 (1994) ICTR
ICC Jurisdiction
• War crimes
• Aggression
• Genocide
• Crimes against humanity
, Workshop 1
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
3:51 PM
• What are the aims of ICL?
AIMS OF ICL
Thinking of Barbie, is ICL worth the effort? Why? What purposes
does ICL serve?
o National level such as
• Deterrence
• Incapacitation
• Denunciation or education
• Retribution
o Unique to international criminal justice
• Promotion of lasting peace (and justice for victims) - national reconciliation, and
• The creation of an impartial and inconvertible historic record
o Source: background, book, p.87
Aims of ICL
• Borrowed from domestic law
o Deterrence: forward-looking goal that aims to dissuade the future commission of
crimes. There is specific and general deterrence
• Criticisms:
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