Comparative Law Researches

Comparative Law Researches

Legal Challenges against the Extension of the International Criminal Court's Jurisdiction over the Crime of Aggression

Author
Abdolmajid Soudmandi
Abstract
Adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in the 1998 Conference, which made the crime of aggression, as one of international crimes, subject to jurisdiction of the Court, and adoption of necessary provisions for "defining this crime and setting out the conditions to exercise jurisdiction over it" at the 2010 Kampala Review Conference represent milestones in the International Criminal Law. These two events have made advocates of justice and human rights hopeful that, in the near future, those accused of committing this crime, which is the most important international crime and the source of other crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, will be sued at the International Criminal Court.
However, the factors that, after the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, prevented inclusion of the crime of aggression in the jurisdiction of ad hoc international criminal courts had, directly or indirectly, undesirable consequences in the aforesaid events. Including the amendment procedure of the Statute for adding provisions necessary for applying the Court's jurisdiction over this crime is vague, and therefore, the provisions adopted at the Kampala are, in some respects, ambiguous or conflicting with the Statute. Most importantly, the procedure of entry into force of Kampala amendments as provided in them is inconsistent with the amendment procedure of the Statute as provided in it. So, if these ambiguities and contradictions are not seriously challenged. resolved, the legality and possible reliance of the Court on Kampala amendments to exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression would be.
Keywords
s Statute
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