International Criminal Law
227 Articles
The Law of Aiding and Abetting (Alleged) War Crimes: How to Assess US and UK Support for Saudi Strikes in Yemen
US and UK support for Saudi-led military operations in Yemen have received significant attention recently due to reports of strikes that damaged or destroyed hospitals, schools,…
Explainer: What Mental State is Required to Commit a War Crime?
What exactly is the definition of war crimes under international law or, more precisely, what mental state is required to commit such an offence? The synopsis below provides an…
Evaluating Proportionality and Long-Term Civilian Harm under the Laws of War
As noted by Alex Whiting in his piece last week, the law of armed conflict, or international humanitarian law (IHL), contains broad principles and prohibitions that are applied…
Syria, J’Accuse! Syrian State Responsibility for War Crimes
So far, achieving any measure of accountability for the grave international crimes being committed in Syria has been elusive, as I’ve outlined before. A draft Security Council…
International & US Support for Transitional Justice Initiatives
My prior post discussed new policy papers on transitional justice issued by the US State Department and US AID. These policy papers reflect the fact that the United States’…
Commanders Put on Notice
Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) handed down its third, and in some ways most important, sentence in its short existence. The court sentenced Jean-Pierre Bemba,…
Recklessness, War Crimes, and the Kunduz Hospital Bombing
Last Friday, the US military announced that it was disciplining 16 service members involved in the bombing of the Médicins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that…
Readers’ Guide on Recent Developments in International Criminal Law
It has been a busy few weeks in international criminal law, with a range of important judgments out of the International Criminal Court, the International Tribunal for the former…
Developing a Practice Around Guilty Pleas at the ICC
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
Sexual Violence and Commanders’ Responsibilities During Conflict
On March 21, the ICC rendered the long-anticipated verdict in the Bemba case. Just three days later, the ICTY rendered its own long-awaited legal trial judgment in the Radovan…
The Bemba Conviction at the ICC: Lessons for the Future
Last Monday, Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former military commander from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was convicted at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for murder, rape,…
Contempt Charges and the International Criminal Tribunals
The last days have been busy in the international criminal law world with convictions in the Karadžić case at the ICTY and the Bemba case at the ICC, and the confirmation for…