How is international criminal law enforced today, & how might it be applied to contemporary war criminals? Simon Parsons weighs up the options
- Under the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over the four core crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.
- It is feasible that Vladimir Putin and other war criminals could be put on trial for these crimes, and there have been calls for the creation of a special tribunal for the punishment of the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
The principle of individual liability for international crimes was established after World War II with the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, which prosecuted and convicted Nazi and Japanese war criminals culpable for criminal wars (covered in Pt 1, NLJ, 14 July 2023, pp13-14). International criminal law places culpability on human beings and not on organisations or states. This law prescribes and punishes acts that amount to international crimes. International criminal law is part of public international law, and it holds war criminals to account for serious violations of international
