Kai Ambos (ed.), Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article-by-Article Commentary, 4th ed., Beck Hart Nomos 2022, 3064 pp

Criminal Law Forum -     

The Mavi Marmara Incident and the International Criminal Court

On 15 May 2013 the OTP announced that it was conducting a preliminary examination of the events surrounding Israel’s enforcement of its naval blockade against the Mavi Marmara on 31 May 2010 in order to determine whether a formal investigation into the incident should be opened. According to Article 53 of the Rome Statute, the OTP shall open a formal investigation where there is a reasonable basis to believe that (a) the ICC possesses temporal, territorial and subject-matter jurisdiction in relation to the situation, (b) it is admissible before the ICC and (c) that a formal investigation would not be contrary to the interests of justice. The application of this framework to the events that occurred on 31 May 2010 is difficult and complex, especially in regard as to whether the situation can be considered of sufficient gravity to warrant the ICC’s attention and whether any of the crimes enumerated in Article 5 of the Rome Statute have been committed. This notwithstanding, I argue that there is a reasonable basis to believe that these criteria are satisfied and therefore conclude by encouraging the OTP to open a formal investigation into the situation.     

Darryl Robinson,Justice in Extreme Cases. Criminal Theory Meets International Criminal Law,Cambridge University Press, 2020, 305 pp

Criminal Law Forum -     

The State of the International Criminal Court,of Special Tribunals and of International Criminal Law: A Concise Review

International criminal law has changed rather dramatically in the last three decades. Whereas in the early 1990s the field was an almost exotic specialization of penal law, it has now developed into a thriving part of the law. Nowadays, most law schools have specialists in international criminal law which has usually developed into an important field of research. An important factor in this development has been the performance of three Special Criminal Tribunals established by the United Nations Security Council. In this article their institutional record as well as their importance for the development of international criminal law will be reviewed. In both senses, on the basis of a necessarily concise review, it is submitted that the performance of the tribunals must be considered a success. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is already twenty years in existence. Its performance cannot be judged equally successfully, however. In particular as an institution it cannot point to records comparable to those of the Special Criminal Tribunals. Still, although it is undoubtedly fragile, the ICC has become a relevant feature of modern international law and in international relations (as a brief examination of its potential role regarding the Special Military Operation in Ukraine shows). Notwithstanding its institutional weaknesses, the importance of the ICC manifests itself in its Statute which can be seen as a codification of international criminal law. The strong increase in the domestic administration of international crimes as a consequence of the principle of the complementarity of the Statute is taken into consideration.

     

国际刑事法院的司法能动主义:实践、反思及限制

国际刑事法院对《罗马规约》近年来的解释中呈现出司法能动主义的趋势,即背离约文的字面含义和立法者的原意,扩张国际刑事法院管辖下犯罪的定义和可受理案件的范围。国际刑法的混合性质、先前国际刑事法庭的司法能动主义政策以及《罗马规约》适用法条款和解释规则的不确定性都是导致国际刑事法院司法能动主义的原因。作为非经授权的司法立法行为,国际刑事法院的司法能动主义不但违背国家主权原则和罪刑法定主义,而且损害了国际社会通过其追究国际犯罪的信心。构建对其司法能动主义进行规制的关键在于厘清和协调《维也纳条约法公约》中的解释规则、罪刑法定原则下的严格解释以及存疑有利于被告解释方法三者在《罗马规约》解释中的适用范围及适用关系。     

全球化背景下的国际刑事法院与国际法治

本文将就国际刑事法院与国际法治理念形成的历史脉络、国际法治的基本内涵、在国际法治原则约束下的国际刑事法院所面临的问题等几个方面展开相应的分析。     

The Relevance of the Work of the International Criminal Court to Refugee Status Determinations

This article considers the work of the International CriminalCourt (ICC) and its overlaps with refugee law and practice.It focuses on ICC complementarity determinations. These involvethe organs of the ICC considering whether a state is willingand able to prosecute individuals accused of international crimes.The article draws attention to the fact that such determinationsprovide information on the extent to which state legal systemsare functional and non-discriminatory, and thus able to ensurethat those who violate human rights are brought to justice.Such information, it is suggested, can and should be drawn uponin deciding whether there is a real chance that an applicantfor refugee status will be able to receive the protection oftheir state through its justice system. The paper draws on thisoverlap between the work of the ICC and refugee law and practiceto support its concluding recommendation that refugee practitionersshould see, and take advantage of, the overlap between the workof the ICC and refugee status inquiries. It is suggested thatthis will help to ensure that persons deserving internationalprotection get it. It will at the same time bring us anotherstep closer to the development of a fully integrated systemfor the protection and promotion of human rights.     

The truth and the trial: victim participation,restorative justice,and the International Criminal Court

In the field of international criminal justice, the international criminal court (ICC) has been lauded for its integration of victim participants into its legal proceedings. In particular, the ICC’s framework of victim participation has been understood to figure as a balance between retributive and restorative justice as it enables the actual voices of the victims to be heard. However, there has been little research that considers how victim participation works in practice as a form of truth-telling. In order to begin to address this gap, the integration of the ‘voices of the victims’ into the proceedings and outcome of The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is explored. The forms of harms and experiences that comprise the truth of the events under adjudication put forward by the victim participants are considered, and then how the truth-telling functions of the ICC represent these states of injury. While the ICC’s legal proceedings enable victims to speak of their harms and experiences, their ‘voices’ are largely absent from its judgment. To address this issue, the ICC needs to develop and maintain a level of ‘restorative justice coherence’ to manage victims’ expectations of its justice approaches.     

T. Squatrito,O.R. Young,A. Follesdal,and G. Ulfstein (eds.), The Performance of International Courts and Tribunals

Netherlands International Law Review -