Claus Kreß is Professor of Criminal Law and Public International Law and Director of the Institute of International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne. Previously, he practiced in the German Federal Ministry of Justice on matters of criminal law and international law, and he has been a member of Germany's delegations in the negotiations regarding the International Criminal Court since 1998. In 2014, he was winner of the M. C. Bassiouni Justice Award. Stefan Barriga served as the principal legal advisor to the chief negotiators on the crime of aggression from 2003 to 2010, and is widely acknowledged as the main expert in charge of the drafting of the Working Group's proposals, papers and reports during that period. He is now the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Principality of Liechtenstein to the United Nations in New York.

'Kreß and Barriga have brought together leading theorists, lawyers, diplomats, and advocates to examine every aspect of the crime of aggression, from the definition of the offense to its jurisdictional constraints, from its drafting history to its domestic implementation, and from its relationship with the UN Charter to its relationship with just war theory … No international law library will be complete without these two volumes.' Adil Ahmad Haque, Just Security (www.justsecurity.org)

• Volume 1: Introduction: the crime of aggression and the international legal order Claus Kreß; Part I. History: 1. World War I, Wilhelm II and Article 227: the origin of the idea of 'aggression' in international criminal law Kirsten Sellars; 2. The crimes against peace precedent Carrie McDougall; 3. The legacy of the Tokyo dissents on 'crimes against peace' Kirsten Sellars; 4. The General Assembly's definition of the act of aggression Thomas Bruha; 5. The practice of the Security Council regarding the concept of aggression Nicolaos Strapatsas; 6. The International Court of Justice and the concept of aggression Dapo Akande and Antonios Tzanakopoulos; 7. The International Law Commission's work on aggression James Crawford; 8. Negotiations on the Rome Statute (1995–1998) Roger S. Clark; Part II. Theory: 9. Just war theory and the crime of aggression Larry May; 10. The modern doctrinal debate on the crime of aggression Florian Jeßberger; 11. The specificity of the crime of aggression Astrid Reisinger Coracini and Pål Wrange; 12. Aggression and international human rights law William Schabas; Part III. Crime of Aggression under Current International Law: 13. Interpreting the crime of aggression Leena Grover; 14. The state conduct element Claus Kreß; 15. Individual conduct Roger S. Clark; 16. General principles of international criminal law Roger S. Clark; 17. Entry into force and conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction: cross-cutting issues Stefan Barriga and Niels Blokker; 18. Conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction based on Security Council referrals Niels Blokker and Stefan Barriga; 19. Conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction based on state referrals and proprio motu investigations Stefan Barriga and Niels Blokker; 20. Immunities Helmut Kreicker; 21. The crime of aggression, domestic prosecutions and complementarity Pål Wrange; 22. The judicial function of the pre-trial division Eleni Chaitidou, Franziska Eckelmans and Barbara Roche; 23. Victims of the crime of aggression Erin Pobjie; Part IV. Crime of Aggression and National Law: 24. Croatia Ksenija Turković and Maja Munivrana Vajda; 25. Germany Elisa Hoven; 26. Estonia Andres Parmas; 27. Russia Svetlana Glotova; 28. United Kingdom Roger O'Keefe. Volume 2: 29. The Arab world Mohamed M. El Zeidy; 30. Asia Nina H. B. Jørgensen; 31. (Extended) synopsis: the crime of aggression under domestic criminal law Astrid Reisinger Coracini; 32. Selected national laws and regional instruments on the crime of aggression Astrid Reisinger Coracini; Part V. Crime of Aggression and the Future World Order: Section 1. Actors' Views: 33. Brazil Marcel Biato and Marcelo Böhlke; 34. China Zhou Lulu; 35. France Edwige Belliard; 36. Germany Susanne Wasum-Rainer; 37. India Narinder Singh; 38. Iran Djamchid Momtaz and Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh; 39. Israel Roy Schöndorf and Daniel Geron; 40. Japan Ichiro Komatsu; 41. Republic of Korea (South Korea) Young Sok Kim; 42. Norway Rolf Einar Fife; 43. Russia Gennady Kuzmin and Igor Panin; 44. South Africa Andre Stemmet; 45. United Kingdom Christopher Whomersley; 46. United States Harold Hongju Koh and Todd F. Buchwald; 47. Egypt Namira Negm; 48. Civil society Noah Weisbord; Section 2. Scholarly Reflections: 49. 'A trap to the innocent …' Martti Koskenniemi; 50. Unjust war and the crime of aggression Jeff McMahan; 51. What is the specific evil of aggression? Frédéric Mégret; 52. The crime of bootstrapping Jens David Ohlin; 53. Amending the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute David Scheffer; Epilogue: the long journey to Kampala - a personal memoir Benjamin B. Ferencz.