Morten Bergsmo

'Positive complementarity' has become a trendy term since the 2010 Kampala Review Conference. Little thought went into its definition when it was first coined in informal discussions at the International Criminal Court in 2003. 'Complementarity' in the Court's Statute is a passive admissibility threshold below which the Court will not investigate or prosecute. The process to construct national ability to investigate and prosecute core international crimes, on the other hand, requires tireless efforts by numerous international and national actors for many years to come. Democratizing the access to legal information should lie at the heart of such capacity building and knowledge-transfer. One way of reducing existing conditions of inequality faced by war crimes lawyers and investigators operating in different jurisdictions is to facilitate the direct access of national actors to legal sources and knowledge. This book seeks to make the existing capacity building discourse more practical, focused and real. It brings together contributions by persons with expertise in the practice of capacity building, the development and maintenance of tools that can be used to make knowledge-transfer more effective and sustainable, and international criminal law. The Legal Tools Project of the International Criminal Court - a technical platform that can be used by those who intend to strengthen capacity - is discussed in some detail.

Legal Information Transfer

Active Complementarity

Viviane E Dittrich

This is the first book to comprehensively analyse integrity in international justice. Thirty-three chapters discuss in-depth the meaning of integrity, awareness and culture of integrity, the roles of international organizations and states as well as international courts in enhancing integrity, integrity as seen through the lens of cases, and the relationship between the principles of independence and integrity. The book considers integrity as a legally binding standard in international courts, while including perspectives from other disciplines such as philosophy, history, psychology and religion. It argues that respect for integrity among high officials and staff members is a prerequisite for international courts and other international organizations to fulfil their mandates. The authors include the prominent judges Hans Corell, Richard J. Goldstone, Hanne Sophie Greve, Ivana Hrdličková, Erik Møse and David Re, and 37 other leading actors and experts in the field of international justice: Adedeji Adekunle, Jonathan Agar, Marina Aksenova, Antonio Angotti, Mohamed Badar, Morten Bergsmo, Vieri Biondi, Julija Bogoeva, Emiliano J. Buis, Andrew T. Cayley CMG QC, Dieneke T. de Vos, Viviane E. Dittrich, David Donat Cattin, Gunnar Ekeløve-Slydal, Polona Florijančič, Jan Fougner, Shannon Fyfe, Gregory S. Gordon, Alexander Heinze, Marta Hirsch-Ziembinska, Brigid Inder OBE, Karim A.A. Khan, Cyril Laucci, Adel Maged, Teresa McHenry, Suhail Mohammed, Salim A. Nakhjavani, Juan Carlos Botero Navia, Matthias Neuner, Shan Patel, Adrian M. Plevin, Basil Saen, Bettina Julia Spilker, Christopher Staker, Ann Marie Ursini, Melissa Verpile and William H. Wiley.

Integrity in International Justice

Thematic Prosecution of International Sex Crimes

Carsten Stahn

Volume 2

Quality Control in Preliminary Examination

Using Old Evidence in Core International Crimes Cases

Pablo Kalmanovitz

Law in Peace Negotiations

This anthology analyses the need for abbreviated criminal procedures for less serious core international crimes in countries that have opened more case files than criminal justice can handle through regular trials. It suggests that ideas can be found in national procedural law. It presupposes that such procedures respect human rights standards.

Abbreviated Criminal Procedures for Core International Crimes

CHEAH Wui Ling

YI Ping

Volume 1

Historical Origins of International Criminal Law

LING Yan

'State sovereignty' is often referred to as an obstacle to criminal justice for core international crimes by members of the international criminal justice movement. The exercise of State sovereignty is seen as a shield against effective implementation of such crimes. But it is sovereign States that create and become parties to international criminal law treaties and jurisdictions. They are the principal enforcers of criminal responsibility for international crimes, as reaffirmed by the complementarity principle on which the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based. Criminal justice for atrocities depends entirely on the ability of States to act. This volume revisits the relationship between State sovereignty and international criminal law along three main lines of inquiry. First, it considers the immunity of State officials from the exercise of foreign or international criminal jurisdiction. Secondly, with the closing down of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals, attention shifts to the exercise of national jurisdiction over core international crimes, making the scope of universal jurisdiction more relevant to perceptions of State sovereignty. Thirdly, could the amendments to the ICC Statute on the crime of aggression exacerbate tensions between the interests of State sovereignty and accountability? The book contains contributions by prominent international lawyers including Professor Christian Tomuschat, Judge Erkki Kourula, Judge LIU Daqun, Ambassador WANG Houli, Dr. ZHOU Lulu, Professor Claus Kre, Professor MA Chengyuan, Professor JIA Bingbing, Professor ZHU Lijiang and Mr. GUO Yang.

State Sovereignty and International Criminal Law

The historical origins of international criminal law go beyond the key trials of Nuremberg and Tokyo but remain a topic that has not received comprehensive and systematic treatment. This anthology aims to address this lacuna by examining trials, proceedings, legal instruments and publications that may be said to be the building blocks of contemporary international criminal law. It aspires to generate new knowledge, broaden the common hinterland to international criminal law, and further develop this relatively young discipline of international law. The anthology and research project also seek to question our fundamental assumptions of international criminal law by going beyond the geographical, cultural, and temporal limits set by the traditional narratives of its history, and by questioning the roots of its substance, process, and institutions. Ultimately, we hope to raise awareness and generate further discussion about the historical and intellectual origins of international criminal law and its social function. The contributions to the three volumes of this study bring together experts with different professional and disciplinary expertise, from diverse continents and legal traditions. Volume 2 comprises contributions by prominent international lawyers and researchers including Professor LING Yan, Professor Neil Boister, Professor Nina H.B. J rgensen, Professor Ditlev Tamm and Professor Mark Drumbl.

Kjetil Helvig

Ilia Utmelidze

Gorana Zagovec

The Backlog of Core International Crimes Case Files in Bosnia and Herzegovina

It is often only years after the commission of core international crimes that prosecutions and investigations take place. This anthology addresses challenges associated with such delayed justice: the location, treatment, and assessment of old evidence. Part I considers the topic from the perspective of different actors involved in the prosecution of core international crimes at the domestic and international levels. Part II comprises chapters focusing on the efforts of the Bangladeshi authorities to investigate and prosecute international crimes perpetrated during the 1971 war. This book brings together experienced judges, prosecutors, lawyers, scientists, and commentators who have dealt with questions of old evidence in their work. Among the contributors are Shafique Ahmed, Andrew Cayley, David Cohen, Seena Fazel, Siri S. Frigaard, M. Amir-Ul Islam, Md. Shahinur Islam, Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart, Alphons M.M. Orie, Stephen J. Rapp, Patrick J. Treanor, Otto Triffterer and Martin Witteveen. The chapters describe the challenges encountered in practice and suggest concrete solutions that can be tailored to fit the circumstances of the case or country. By providing a comprehensive analysis of the relevant problems in this area and a variety of views, this anthology will serve as an invaluable resource for criminal justice actors and researchers seeking to address questions of old evidence.

Old Evidence and Core International Crimes

Wolfgang Kaleck

U Kyaw Yin Hlaing

This eye-opening book invites careful reflection on how we should respond to colonial and post-colonial wrongs from the perspective of international law, in particular international criminal law. In addition to a dozen case studies, the book offers analyses based on legal concepts such as subjugation, debellatio, continuing crime, and transfer of civilians, as well as on the discourses of Third World Approaches to International Law and transitional justice. It contains a number of practical suggestions for what can be done to enhance a sense of access to international law in connection with colonial wrongs. The book has eighteen chapters organised in five parts, addressing the context of the discussion on colonial wrongs and access to international law, legal notions, Colonial Burma, other former colonial territories, and indigenous populations. You find contributions by Morten Bergsmo, Joshua Castellino, Kevin Crow, Christophe Deprez, Shannon Fyfe, Gregory S. Gordon, Brigid Inder OBE, Wolfgang Kaleck, Asad Kiyani, Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Jacques P. Leider, LING Yan, Christophe Marchand, Hugo van der Merwe, Ryan Mitchell, Annah Moyo, Mutoy Mubiala, Matthias Neuner, Narinder Singh, Gunnar Ekeløve-Slydal, Derek Tonkin, Crépine Uwashema and YANG Ken. In their foreword, the co-editors explain - with reference to lingering consequences of the slave-based economy - why the book is dedicated to "those who will transmute the legacies of colonial wrongs and slavery into a wider, world-embracing solidarity and unity". The book calls for renewed leadership in this area.

Colonial Wrongs and Access to International Law

SONG Tianying

Klaus Rackwitz

Volume 5

This book discusses how fact-finding mechanisms for alleged violations of international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law can be improved. There has been a significant increase in the use of international, internationalised and domestic fact-finding mechanisms since 1992, including by the United Nations human rights system, international commissions of inquiry, truth and reconciliation commissions, and NGOs. They are analysed and assessed in detail by 19 authors under the common theme 'Quality Control in Fact-Finding'. The authors include Richard J. Goldstone, Martin Scheinin, LIU Daqun, Charles Garraway, David Re, Simon De Smet, FAN Yuwen, Isabelle Lassée, WU Xiaodan, Dan Saxon, Chris Mahony, Dov Jacobs, Catherine Harwood, Lyal S. Sunga, Wolfgang Kaleck, Carolijn Terwindt, Ilia Utmelidze and Marina Aksenova. Serge Brammertz has written the Preface, and LING Yan a Foreword. The book emphasises quality awareness and improvement in non-criminal justice fact-work. This quality control approach recognises, inter alia, the importance of leadership in fact-finding mechanisms, the responsibility of individual fact-finders to continuously professionalise, and the need for fact-finders to be mandate-centred. It is an approach that invites the consideration of how the quality of every functional aspect of fact-finding can be improved, including work processes to identify, locate, obtain, verify, analyse, corroborate, summarise, synthesise, structure, organise, present, and disseminate facts. The book also considers regulatory approaches to enhance quality and professionalisation.

Quality Control in Fact-Finding

Emiliano J. Buis

This first edition of Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law: Correlating Thinkers contains 20 chapters about renowned thinkers from Plato to Foucault. As the first volume in the series "Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law", the book identifies leading philosophers and thinkers in the history of philosophy or ideas whose writings bear on the foundations of the discipline of international criminal law, and then correlates their writings with international criminal law.

Correlating Thinkers

Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law

Widely recognized as a leading book on prosecutorial discretion, this volume discusses whether criminal justice can and should prioritize some types of crime, such as the targeting of women or children. The book is indispensable for those interested in thematic prosecution or prioritization of cases.

Morten Bergsmo

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