International Criminal Law

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The International Criminal Court goes all-in: What now?

March 20, 2023

The bombshell announcement on 17 March 2023 of ICC arrest warrants against Russian President Putin and his Children’s Rights Ombudswoman Lvova-Belova put an end to one-year long speculations about the first cases to be brought before the ICC in relation to Ukraine. Pre-Trial Chamber II (PTC II) found reasonable grounds to believe they committed war crimes of unlawful deportation of population (children) and unlawful transfer of children from the Ukrainian occupied territories to Russia (Article 8(2)(a)(vii) and (b)(viii) of the ICC Statute). What difference does the issuance of these arrest warrants make and what can be expected to happen next? I provide a few initial thoughts below (please make sure to check the excellent takes by Mark Kersten and Rebecca Hamilton). The Ukrainian authorities have welcomed the ruling. President Zelenskyy praised it as a ‘historic decision, from which historical responsibility will begin’. Their counterparts in Moscow were defiant: Russia is no party to the Statute and recognizes neither its jurisdiction nor its judicial…

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A litmus test for international justice: If not for the Yazidis, then for whom?

March 17, 2023

Yazidi tradition recounts that, before the Daesh attack in 2014, the Yazidis had suffered seventy-two large-scale persecutions in their history. To a large extent, in the past, they faced these attacks alone, with little hope of external support. But given that the 2014 genocide took place in the age of international justice – the age of the…

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New universal jurisdiction case filed in Germany for crimes committed in Myanmar before and after the coup: On complementarity, effectiveness, and new hopes for old crimes

March 7, 2023

A few days before the second anniversary of the ‘failed coup’ in Myanmar, a case was filed in Germany against senior Myanmar military generals and ‘other actors’ identified in the complaint for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It was filed under universal jurisdiction enshrined in the German Code of Crimes against International Law (Völkerstrafgesetzbuch…

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Nicaragua: Expatriation as an Aggravated Form of Political Persecution

February 27, 2023

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of international law, Nicaragua has stripped more than 300 dissident citizens of their nationality in the last two weeks. 222 of these citizens were deported to the United States on 9 February (see here), with the Managua Appeals Court (Tribunal de Apelaciones) removing their nationality the day…

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The Law of Immunity and the Prosecution of the Head of State of the Russian Federation for International Crimes in the War against Ukraine

January 16, 2023

The debate on how to prosecute the international crimes linked to the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is ongoing (for example, here, here and here). One of the most prominent aspects of the debate concerns the question of how to prosecute the persons who are allegedly most responsible for such crimes, particularly, the…

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