Supranational Criminal Law – serie

Acts perpetrated during the course of warfare have, through the ages, led to significant environmental destruction. These have included situations where the natural environment has intentionally been targeted as a 'victim', or has somehow been manipulated to serve as a 'weapon' of warfare. Until recently, such acts were generally regarded as an unfortunate but unavoidable element of armed conflict, despite their potentially disastrous impacts. The existing international rules have largely been ineffective and inappropriate, and have in practical terms done little to deter deliberate environmental destruction, particularly when measured against perceived military advantages. However, as the significance of the environment has come to be more widely understood and recognised, this is no longer acceptable, particularly given the ongoing development of weapons capable of widespread and significant damage. This book therefore examines the current international legal regime relevant to the intentional destruction of the environment during warfare, and argues that such acts should, in appropriate circumstances, be recognised as an international crime and should be subject to more effective rules giving rise to international criminal responsibility. It also suggests a framework within the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as to how this might be achieved.

The chequered history of the criminalisation of aggression as a crime under international law has reached an important milestone with the adoption of the Kampala Resolution on the Crime of Aggression (2010). This resolution provides for the definition of the crime of aggression to be included in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as for conditions for the exercise of ICC jurisdiction over the crime. The second edition of this volume contains an overview and discussion of the historical and normative processes (legal and political) that culminated in the adoption of the Kampala Resolution. The different components of the resolution are critically assessed against the background of the various political and legal responses to aggression, while taking into account contemporary developments in the field of international criminal law. The volume is primarily but not exclusively concerned with the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute.It also includes a chapter on national and regional criminal justice responses to aggression, notably developments concerning the amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, which also provides for the criminalisation of aggression.

The dynamics of enforcing international criminal justice through the International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a challenging exercise in Africa. At times the uneasy relationship between the ICC, the African Union and a few influential African states has given rise to concerns about the future of international criminal justice in general, and in Africa in particular. Still, the enthusiasts for international criminal justice as enforced by the ICC, interpret the challenges that the ICC is encountering in Africa as part of the growing pains of a new institution in the international system. The distractors have already prepared the IC 's obituary. One of the criticisms levelled against the ICC, and which is the motivation for, and central theme behind, this book is that it has morphed and ceased to be an independent legal institution instead becoming a political tool utilised by politically powerful states in the West against their political opponents in Africa. More specifically the Court is alleged to be selectively enforcing international criminal law by merely officially opening investigations and prosecutions in Africa.Although this book recognises that selective implementation of criminal justice is acceptable both at the domestic and international level, it analyses the legal and political factors behind the Court 's focus on international crimes committed in Africa when there are other situations to which the court should potentially turn its attention, such as in Syria, Afghanistan or the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The book seeks to determine whether such a focus implies that Africa has the monopoly over international crimes or whether African victims or perpetrators are any different from those in the Middle East?In addition, the book attempts to uncover the basis and the validity of the African Union and some African states criticisms of the ICC.

This book offers an overview of the challenges in the emerging regime of international criminal justice as a tool of sustainable peace. It illustrates the impact of the regime on international law and international relations, focusing on the obstacles to and concerns of its governance in the context of the maintenance and restoration of international peace and security.The author advocates for an appropriate interaction strategy between the United Nations and the Rome Statute institutions as a matter of international mutual concern and for the sake of human security. In multiple and inter-linked country situations the failure of strategies to prevent mass atrocity crimes have severely compromised the safety of civilians, including their individual fundamental rights. In several countries - such as in Libya, Syria, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast and Mali - civilians have severely suffered the consequences of such failure. Furthermore, the right of humanitarian intervention that it is sometimes claimed the international community has is now challenged and qualified by the responsibility to protect civilians in situations of mass atrocity crimes. Such an international norm represents unfinished business in global politics and is considered by many to be far from capable of preserving the rule of international law. The preservation of the rule of law requires discussions and the advocacy of global values in international relations, such as multilateralism, collective responsibility, global solidarity and mutual accountability.

Extended Confiscation in Criminal Law provides a comprehensive analysis of the most recent developments in the field. With its main focus on the EU, this multi-faceted study enhances the reader's understanding of the strategy of confiscating assets, giving detailed answers to the questions of how the confiscation regimes could be improved and which changes are proportionate to the objectives pursued.The book begins by examining extended confiscation from the national perspective, presenting the substantive criteria for this power of confiscation. It focuses on three main jurisdictions - England and Wales, Germany and Sweden - and explores how domestic legislation is drafted and applied in their differing models. Analysing Directive 2014/42/EU on the Freezing and Confiscation of Instrumentalities and Proceeds of Crime in the European Union, it seeks to answer the questions of whether harmonisation truly increases efficiency or if other reforms may be more effectively. Furthermore, this book considers whether increased powers of extended confiscation strike the right balance between the interest of law enforcement and the protection of fundamental human rights.The notion of extended confiscation is then set in its broader context, looking from an international perspective. A holistic analysis of the regime for handling transnational confiscation cases is given, asking if it is possible to trace and search for assets abroad, or execute final orders in other states.This book is of great interest for academics as well as national and international legislators. It may also be used as a handbook for practitioners handling cross-border confiscation cases.

Although rooted in a similar ideal, human rights (IHRL), international criminal law (ICL) and international humanitarian law (IHL) are separate fields of law, best represented as circles, each of which overlaps with the other two. However human rights often seems to absorb the other two, while in other situations, the lines between human rights law and its next door neighbours are blurred or contested.This volume consists of three main parts. The first main part explores the convergences and divergences between IHL and/or IHRL on the one hand, and ICL stricto sensu on the other hand. The second part investigates the convergences and divergences between IHRL and transnational crimes, or ICL in the broader sense, which suppresses crimes such as drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings and corruption through international treaties providing for domestic enforcement. The last main part of this volume provides the reader with novel and original insights as to how IHRL and IHL converge and diverge by considering if and how the norms of other branches of international law come into play and how the European Court of Human Rights has engaged with the sometimes contradicting norms of IHL. It furthermore analyses the relationship between the specific IHL and IHRL norms which prohibit arbitrary displacement and maps their interaction. Finally, the effectiveness of States' investigations of war crimes committed by their armed forces is evaluated by emphasising attention to the relevant standards developed within IHRL, since IHL does not indicate specific criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of an investigation.

The Independence of the International Criminal Court: Between a Rock and a Hard Place focuses on understanding the different competing narratives defending and critiquing the ICC's 'institutional' independence and legitimacy, especially in its relationship with Africa.

This book explores a range of issues related to the development, application and enforcement of international criminal justice within Africa and on Africa. Written by experts from Africa, and adopting African perspectives, this book seeks to understand the scope and reach of these issues, nationally, regionally and globally. Africa's Role and Contribution to International Criminal Justice engages in theoretical and policy discourses on the substantive and procedural features of criminal law and justice in the African context. A range of topical issues are examined by the contributors, such as the ways in which African states have dealt with issues of universal jurisdiction and how victims are treated, as well as controversial questions concerning how courts function and should function in dealing with these issues. The ideas, themes, institutions, practices, concepts and patterns of convergence of criminal justice systems in Africa are also explored. This book aims to establish a greater understanding of international criminal justice and its relation to Africa, and beyond. Further, it seeks to expand the conversation beyond the narrow topics that are so commonly discussed when matters of African criminal justice are considered.

The growing attention being paid to transnational criminality and the emergence of new models of state cooperation make it necessary to reconsider the traditional features of human rights enforcement. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of how criminal procedural rights are (if at all) protected within the framework of mutual recognition within the EU. The study concentrates on the Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant. The central issue of analysis is the national and extraterritorial responsibility for violations of fundamental rights which occur in the framework of such transnational procedures. Are there any provisions in international or national instruments, which aim at effectively preventing or remedying violations? Is there any functioning judicial control? The effect of national legislation and human rights bars to cooperation is discussed on the basis of a comparative study of the legislation and case-law in Sweden and the UK. Further, the roles of the European Courts for the protection of due process rights are analysed.The book focuses on the special features of mutual recognition in relation to state responsibility for an executing and issuing state. Especially the concept of mutual trust and the justifications for a system of division of labour between the States are critically discussed. Whose responsibility? provides the reader with new and interesting perspectives regarding the specific problems of being a defendant within the EU, and gives some new answers to the question of responsibility for transnational defence rights.