An overview on individual criminal liability for crime of aggression

Asif Khan; Shaukat Hussain Bhatti; Abid Shah

doi:10.47264/idea.lassij/5.1.28

Authors

Asif Khan School of Law, Zhengzhou University, Henan, China. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5059-5976
Shaukat Hussain Bhatti Department of Law, Times Institute-University, Multan, Pakistan. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7232-132X
Abid Shah School of Law, Zhengzhou University, Zhongyuan, Henan, China. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3356-3534

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.lassij/5.1.28

Keywords:

crime of aggression, criminal responsibility, individual criminal responsibility, International Criminal Court, international law

Abstract

Over the last few years, international criminal law has included an internationally recognized definition of the crime of aggression. One may sight the respective portion from part two (jurisdiction, admissibility and applicable laws) article 08 of the respective document. The purpose of this research represents the historical background of individual criminal responsibility under international law and the concept of individual criminal accountability for the crimes falling under the ambit of international criminal law committed by persons. Whereas the idea of how an individual could be brought to justice, for one of the core crimes of ICC's statutes, i.e., crime of aggression, was recently adopted and envisaged into Rome statutes, after the Kampala conference 2010. The concept of individual criminal responsibility for the crime of aggression faced many difficulties in at-least adopting its proper definition, which was leftover for future when Rome statue was formulated. To keep pace, this concept needs further evolution. Such an evolution demands such a condition wherein while granting the characteristics of adaptability with the contextual conditions and principles of criminal law. This article explores the anatomy of the crime of aggression and highlights issues that remain to be resolved.

References

Bassiouni, M. C., & Schabas, W. A. (Eds.). (2016). The legislative history of the International Criminal Court (2 Vols.): Second revised and expanded edition. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004322097 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004322097

Crowe, D. M. (2014). The Tokyo IMT trial. In War crimes, genocide, and justice (pp. 195-241). Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781137037015_7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137037015_7

Dictionary, M. W. (2020). Meaning and definition of aggression. https://www. merriam-webster.com

Dinstein, Y. (2017). War, aggression and self-defence. Cambridge University. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108120555

Edge, S. (2015, January 26). The gunshots that change history: Murder of Franz Ferdinand and the start of World War One. Express. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world-war-1/485408/WW1-World-War-One-Franz-Ferdinand-centenary

Garner, B. A. (2021). Black's Law Dictionary, (11th ed.), St. Paul, Thomson/West.

Heller, K. J. (2020). The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In: The Handbook of Comparative Criminal Law (pp. 593-634). Stanford University. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804777292-018 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804777292-018

ICC. (1998). The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. International Criminal Court (ICC). https://legal.un.org/icc/statute/romefra.htm

Lardon, S. (2019). The six books of the republic by Jean Bodin (1576). The first quotation from the Strasbourg Oaths. Corpus Eve. Emergence of Vernacular in Europe . https://journals.openedition.org/eve/1781

McDougall, C. (2021). The crime of aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Cambridge University. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108769143 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108769143

Mens Rea. (rep.). Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/mens_rea#:~:text=Mens%20Rea%20refers%20to%20criminal,511%20US%20600%20(1994

Opening Speech of the Chief Prosecutor for the United States, reprinted in trial of German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal Sitting atm Nuremberg Germany Buffalo (2001), William S. Hein & Co., https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/international-military-tribunal-at-nuremberg

Pace, W. R., & Panganiban, R. (2018). The power of global activist networks: the campaign for an international criminal court. In Civil Society in the Information Age (pp. 109-126). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315186924-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315186924-8

Powell v. Texas, 392 U.S. 514, 88 S. Ct. 2145, 20 L. Ed. 2d 1254 (1968).

Rhea, H. M. (2018). International Criminal Courts Prior to the Second World War: An historical analysis of International and Multinational Criminal Courts Preceding Nuremberg. Syracuse J. Int'l L. & Com., 46, 323. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/sjilc46&div=12&id=&page=

Rogers, D. (2018). International Military Tribunals. In Law, politics and the limits of prosecuting mass atrocity (pp. 33-56). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60994-2_2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60994-2_2

Schabas, W. A. (2017). The International Criminal Court: A commentary on the Rome statute. Oxford University.

Sewall, S. (2020). The crime of aggression and the responsibility to protect. The International Criminal Court: Contemporary challenges and reform proposals (pp. 270-277). Brill Nijhoff. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004384095_029 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004384095_029

Singh, K. (2020). Law and practice of the United Nations.

Sipowo, A. G. (2018). Claus Kreß and Stefan Barriga (eds), The crime of aggression: A commentary. https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqy013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqy013

The Coalition for the ICC. (2018, July 17). The crime of aggression. http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/explore/icc-crimes/crime-aggression

Trahan, J. (2016). An overview of the newly adopted International Criminal Court definition of the crime of aggression. Journal of International and Comparative Law, 2(1), 3.

Sayapin, S. (2017). The crime of aggression in International Criminal Law. Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-90-6704-927-6

UN GA. (1974). Definition of Aggression, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX). United Nations. http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/GAres3314.html.

UN GA. (1981). Resolutions and decisions adopted by the General Assembly during its 36th session (36/106 IX). United Nations. https://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/36.

UN GA. (1981, December 10). Resolutions and decisions adopted by the General Assembly during its 36th session (36/106 IX). United Nations. https://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/36.

UN GA. (1989). Resolutions and decisions adopted by the General Assembly during its 44th session (44/39). United Nations. https://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/44

UN. (1954). General Assembly documentation, reports, resolutions, decisions, meeting records. United Nations. https://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/9.

United Nations diplomatic conference of Plenipotentiaries on the establishment of an International Criminal Court (1998: Rome. (2002). United Nations diplomatic conference of Plenipotentiaries on the establishment of an International Criminal Court, Rome, 15 June-17 July 1998: Official Records. United Nations.

Von-Verdross, A. (2020). The Charter of the United Nations and General International Law. In Law and Politics in the World Community (pp. 153-161). University of California. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520349568-012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520349568-012