Judicial Responsibility and Coups d’État

Kriangsak Kittichaisaree is a Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. He has served as Chairperson of the UN General Assembly’s Working Group on the Administration of Justice at the United Nations; member of the UN International Law Commission responsible for the topic ‘The Obligation to Extradite or Prosecute (aut dedere aut judicare)'; and Thailand’s Ambassador to Iran, Australia and Russia. He has taught international law at renowned law schools in four continents. His 11 books include the pioneering textbook International Criminal Law (2001); Public International Law of Cyberspace (2017, also translated into Chinese); The Obligation to Extradite or Prosecute (2018); International Human Rights Law and Diplomacy (2020); and The Rohingya, Justice and International Law (2021).

"Judicial Responsibility and Coups d'État is the definitive study of a crucial issue faced by many courts around the world: how to grapple with unconstitutional changes in government. Written with great analytic clarity, the book ranges across a wide array of legal issues and regional contexts. Highly recommended!".Tom Ginsburg, Faculty Director, Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity, Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, & Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

• Preface; Abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Legal bases to assess the legality of unconstitutional usurpation of power; 3. Permissible parameters for judges in post-coup suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms; 4. Availability or non-availability of defences for judges in relation to judicial responsibility post-coups; 5. Amnesties, pardons, immunities and other restrictions on the prosecution of usurpers of power and their accomplices or collaborators; 6. International or extra-territorial criminal prosecution of coups-related crimes of international concern; 7. Epilogue; Index;