PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW I - Chapter 7 Summary

Introduction to International Criminal Law

This section provides an introduction to international criminal law, including its history and sources.

History of International Criminal Law

• Classical international law did not focus on international crimes.

• Only war crimes were punishable before the First World War.

• After the Second World War, two international military tribunals were set up to try war criminals.

• The UN General Assembly affirmed the principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946.

• In 1993, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

• The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established in 1994.

Sources of International Criminal Law

• Classical international law did not focus on international crimes because individuals were considered as objects of international law.

• The establishment of international institutions with authority to prosecute and punish those persons involved in violations resulted from internal armed conflicts that fed on nationalism and fundamentalism.

Formation of the International Criminal Court

This section discusses how the idea to establish a permanent criminal court revived after several failed attempts.

Attempts to Establish an International Permanent Criminal Court

• Attempts to establish an international permanent criminal court started by the Committee of Jurists in 1920.

• In 1937, a convention for the creation of an International Criminal Court consisting of five judges and five deputies was drafted by the League of Nations but failed due to lack of ratification.

• A new committee was assigned to this task in 1952 but it also failed due to the cold war conditions.

• The idea to establish a permanent criminal court revived in 1989.

Formation of the International Criminal Court

• In 1994, the Commission completed a comprehensive draft statute and submitted it to the General Assembly.

• The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted by the diplomatic conference of plenipotentiary held in Rome between 15th and 17th July 1998.

• The ICC can only prosecute crimes committed on or after July 1st, 2002.

• The ICC's first judges were elected in February 2003.

Jurisdiction of the ICC

This section discusses the three jurisdictional requirements under the Rome Statute that must be met before a case may start against an individual. The ICC has been created to prosecute the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.

Requirements for ICC Jurisdiction

• There are three jurisdictional requirements under the Rome Statute that must be met before a case may start against an individual: subject matter jurisdiction, territorial or personal jurisdiction, and temporal jurisdiction.

• The ICC has been created with an avid that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished.

• Crimes listed in the Rome Statute include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crime of aggression.

• Offenses against administration of justice can also be prosecuted by individuals.

Terrorism as an International Crime

This section defines terrorism as an international crime and outlines its elements.

Defining Terrorism

• Terrorism refers to killing innocent people by a private group usually to achieve some political goals.

• An act of terrorism amounting to international crime should have an international element that is it should involve two or more states.

• Various legal systems and government agencies use different definitions of terrorism in their national legislation.

• Terrorism as an international crime has four elements: (1) The act must constitute a criminal offense under most national legal systems; (2) The act must be aimed at compelling a state or organization to do or abstain from doing any acts; (3) The act must be motivated by political, religious, or ideological reasons; (4) The act must not be motivated by private motives.

Conclusion

This section concludes the program and reminds viewers to watch Chapter 8.

End of Program

• The program concludes with a reminder to watch Chapter 8.