Time for decision: Some thoughts on the immediate future of the crime of aggression: A reply to Andreas Paulus

European Journal of International Law

Volumn 20, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 1129-1146

  Kreß, Claus ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE   (Germany)

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EID: 77952577546     PISSN: 09385428     EISSN: 14643596     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ejil/chp077     Document Type: Article

References (97)

1. Art. 5(2) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC Statute).
2. For a brief account of this work see Barriga, 'Against the Odds: The Results of the Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression', in R. Bellelli (ed.), International Criminal Justice (2009, forthcoming)
3. for a more detailed account see Weisbord, 'Prosecuting Aggression', 49 Harvard Int'l LJ (2008) 161
4. on the work of the Working Group on Aggression within the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court see Fernández de Gurmendi, 'The Working Group on Aggression at the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court', 25 Fordham Int'l LJ (2001-2002) 589
5. Doc ICC-ASP/7/20/Add. 1, at 30.
6. Doc ICC-ASP/8/INF. 2, at 12.
7. For a recent account of this long and fascinating story see O. Solera, Defining the Crime of Aggression (2007)
8. for a monumental study of the aggression debate from 1920 to 1975 see B.B. Ferencz, Defining International Aggression - The Search for World Peace: A Documentary History and Analysis (1975), 2 vols
9. for a useful and more recent account see United Nations (ed.), Historical Review of Developments relating to Aggression (2003).
10. In particular, the intensive informal debate during the 'Princeton meetings' is fully documented through a sequence of detailed reports (available at: www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ASP/Crime+of+Aggression/)
11. expert conferences have accompanied the process, such as the ones held in Turin (see Bellelli, supra note 2) and Cleveland
12. see Scharf and Hadji, 'Symposium: The International Criminal Court and the Crime of Aggression', 41 Case Western Reserve J Int'l L (2009) 267
13. The following is just a selection: Ferencz, 'Ending Impunity for the Crime of Aggression', 41 Case Western Reserve J Int'l L (2009) 281
14. Schaeffer, 'The Audacity of Compromise. The UN Security Council and the Pre-conditions to the Exercise of Jurisdiction by the ICC with Regard to the Crime of Aggression', 9 Int'l Criminal L Rev (2009) 411
15. Clark, 'The Crime of Aggression and the International Criminal Court', in M.C. Bassiouni (ed.), International Criminal Law: Sources, Subjects and Contents (2008), at 243
16. L May, Aggression and Crimes Against Peace (2008)
17. Blokker, 'The Crime of Aggression and the United Nations Security Council', 20 Leiden J Int'l L (2007) 867
18. Cassese, 'On Some Problematic Aspects of the Crime of Aggression', 20 Leiden J Int'l L (2007) 841
19. McDougall, 'When Law and Reality Clash - the Imperative of Compromise in the Context of the Accumulated Evil of the Whole: Conditions for the Exercise of the International Criminal Court's Jurisdiction over the Crime of Aggression', 7 Int'l Criminal L Rev (2007) 277
20. Kreß, 'The Crime of Aggression before the First Review of the ICC Statute', 20 Leiden J Int'l L (2007) 851
21. Stein, 'The Security Council, the International Criminal Court, and the Crime of Aggression: How Exclusive is the Security Council Power to Determine Aggression?, 16 Indiana Int'l and Comp L Rev (2005) 1
22. M. Politi and G. Nesi (eds), The International Criminal Court and the Crime of Aggression (2004)
23. Kreß, 'Strafrecht und Angriffskrieg im Licht "des Falles Irak"', 115 Zeitschrift für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft (2003) 294
24. Nsereko, 'Defining the Crime of Aggression: An Important Agenda Item for the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court' [2003] Acta Juridica 265
25. Westdickenberg and Fixson, 'Das Verbrechen der Aggression im Römischen Statut des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofes', in J.A. Frowein et al. (eds), Verhandeln für den Frieden: Liber Amicorum Tono Eitel (2003), at 483
26. Griffiths, 'International Law, the Crime of Aggression and the Ius Ad Bellum', 2 Int'l Criminal L Rev (2002) 301
27. Clark, 'Rethinking Aggression as a Crime and Formulating Its Elements: The Final Work-Product of the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court', 15 Leiden J Int'l L (2002) 859
28. Trahan, 'Defining "Aggression": Why the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court has Faced such a Conundrum?', 24 Loyola U LA Int'l and Comp L Rev (2002) 439
29. M. Hummrich, Der völkerrechtliche Straftatbestand der Aggression (2001)
30. Meron, 'Defining Aggression for the International Criminal Court', 1 Suffolk Transnat'l L Rev (2001) 1
31. Müller-Schieke, 'Defining the Crime of Aggression under the Statute of the International Criminal Court', 14 Leiden J Int'l L (2001) 409
32. Springrose, 'Aggression as a Core Crime in the Rome Statute Establishing an International Criminal Court', 5 St Louis-Warsaw Transatlantic LJ (1999) 167
33. A. Ronneberg, Der Tatbestand des Verbrechens gegen den Frieden (unpulished Ph.D. thesis, 1998).
34. Zimmermann, in O. Triffterer (ed.), Commentary on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2nd edn, 2008), Art. 5 marginal n. 16 ff
35. Stein, 'Aggression als Verbrechen im Statut des International-en Strafgerichtshofs - "A Bridge too Far"?', in H. Müller-Dietz et al. (eds), Festschrift für Heike Jung (2007), at 935
36. Boehring, 'Aggression, International Law and the ICC: An Argument for the Withdrawal of Aggression from the Rome Statute', 43 Columbia J Transnat'l L (2005) 557
37. Paulus, 'Peace through Justice? The Future of the Crime of Aggression in a Time of Crisis', 50 Wayne L Rev (2004) 1
38. Fife, 'Criminalizing Individual Acts of Aggression by States', in M. Bergsmo (ed.), Human Rights and Criminal Justice for the Downtrodden. Essays in Honour of Asbjorn Eide (2003), at 53
39. Schuster, 'The Rome Statute and the Crime of Aggression: A Gordian Knot in Search of a Sword', 14 Criminal L Forum (2003) 1
40. The title of the very first Res adopted by the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC, 'Continuity of work in respect of the crime of aggression', underlines the long-term nature of the negotiations
41. R. v. Jones et al. [2006] UKHL 16, at paras 12 and 19 (Lord Bingham), 44 and 59 (Lord Hoffmann), 96 (Lord Rodger), 97 (Lord Carswell), and 99 (Lord Mance).
42. Res F, at para. 7, Final Act of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, A/CONF.183/10.
43. The ILC confirmed this legal status of the crime of aggression by including it in its 1996 ILC 'Code of Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind', UN Doc A/51/10, 26 July 1996, ILC Yearbook (1996 II (2)) 17. In her recent textbook treatise on the subject, Wilmshurst states: 'Aggression is widely regarded as a crime under customary international law...'
44. 'Aggression', in R. Cryer, H. Friman, D. Robinson, and E. Wilmshurst (eds), An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure (2007), at 262.
45. In that sense see, e.g., Ambos, 'Strafrecht und Krieg: strafbare Beteiligung der Bundesregierung am Irak-Krieg?', in J. Arnold et al. (eds), Menschengerechtes Strafrecht: Festschrift für Albin Eser zum 70. Geburtstag (2005), at 674
46. I. Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law (2003), at 561
47. A. Cassese, International Criminal Law (2nd edn, 2008), at 155
48. Y. Dinstein, War, Aggression and Self-Defence (4th edn, 2005), at 121
49. Dumée, 'Le crime d'agression', in H. Ascensio, E. Decaux, and A. Pellet (eds), Droit International Pénal (2000), at 251
50. Gaja, 'The Long Journey towards Repressing Aggression', in A. Cassese, P. Gaeta, and J.R.W.D. Jones (eds), The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary (2002), i, at 430
51. Greppi, 'The Evolution of Individual Criminal Responsibility under International Law', 835 Int'l Rev Red Cross (1999) 531
52. Sadat and Carden, 'The New International Criminal Court: An Uneasy Revolution', 88 Georgetown LJ (2000) 381, at 437 n. 341
53. G. Werle, Principles of International Criminal Law (2005), at 393
54. The correct majority position of the customary status of the crime of aggression can best be explained on the basis of 'modern positivism'
55. see Simma and Paulus, 'The Responsibility of Individuals for Human Rights Abuses in Internal Conflicts', 93 AJIL (1999) 302, at 306
56. which accounts for much of the recent development of international criminal law (for an analysis of the international criminalization of war crimes committed in non-international armed conflicts
57. see Kreß, 'War Crimes Committed in Non-international Armed Conflicts and the Emerging System of International Criminal Justice', 30 Israel Yrbk Human Rts (2000) 103, at 104
58. For an excellent summary of the effect of the 'Nuremberg legacy' on our subject see Clark, 'Nuremberg and the Crime of Peace', 6 Washington U Global Studies L Rev (2007) 527
59. For an excellent recent reappraisal of the contribution of the Tokyo International Military Tribunal to the legal development on the crime of aggression see N. Boister and R. Cryer, The Tokyo International Military Tribunal: A Reappraisal (2008), at 115.
60. ILC Yearbook (1949) 51-53
61. For an influential response to the sceptics of a possible co-existence between the two branches of law see H. Lauterpacht, 'The Limits of the Operation of the Law of War', 30 British Yrbk Int'l L (1953) 206.
62. For an analysis reflecting the considerable complexity of criminal law theory see M. A. Drumble, Atrocity, Punishment and International Law (2007), at 169 ff.
63. Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of German Major War Criminals, Cmd. 6964, Miscellaneous No. 12 (1946) (1962), at 13.
64. Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, in particular, run this risk when they (rather astonishingly) explain their continuous silence regarding the crime of aggression by their 'limited mandate'
65. Illegal threats to use force and 'attempted' state acts of aggression are not covered by the proposed definition of the crime. In particular, the requirement of a completed state act of aggression also applies to those who (merely) plan and prepare such an act. While this may not be crystal clear from the language of draft Art. 8bis, it is placed beyond question by Element 3 of the draft Elements of the crime (ICC-ASP/8/INF.2, at 14).
66. The quantitative threshold is established through the use of the words 'gravity and scale' in Art. 8bis. On the qualitative threshold see infra sect. 4B.
67. The renaissance of international criminal law since the 1990s and the entry into force of the ICC Statute in 2002 are so recent that the appropriate moment in time for such an assessment has not yet come; for the same view
68. For a different view see Strapatsas, 'Rethinking General Assembly Resolution 3314 (1974) as a Basis for the Definition of Aggression under the Rome Statute of the ICC', in O. Olusanya (ed.), Rethinking International Criminal Law: The Substantive Part (2007), at 190.
69. Suffice it to refer to the distinction between (acts of) aggression as listed in Art. 3 and 'wars of aggression' as referred to in the first sentence of Art. 5(2) of Res 3314
70. For a more detailed discussion of the problem in the context of Germany's alleged participation in the 2003 Iraq War
71. see Kreß, 'The German Chief Federal Prosecutor's Decision not to Investigate the Alleged Crime of Preparing Aggression against Iraq', 2 J Int'l Criminal Justice (2004) 251
72. ICC-ASP/6/20Add. 1; there is a clear connection with the language of 'manifest violation of the United Nations Charter' and the requirement 'clearly without justification under international law' in Germany's proposal of 13 Nov. 2000; PCNICC/2000/WGCA/DP.4, 7 (para. 24).
73. Robinson and von Hebel, 'War Crimes in Internal Conflicts: Article 8 of the ICC Statute', 2 Yrbk Int'l Humanitarian L (1999) 208
74. In its 1996 'Code of Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind', the ILC held that 'only a sufficiently serious violation of the prohibition contained in Article 2, paragraph 4, of the United Nations Charter' gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for the crime of aggression
75. ILC Yearbook (1996 II (2)) 43
76. In June 2000, the UK made the following intervention in the Preparatory Commission (on file with the author): '[T]here is nothing in international law to say that participation in any [unlawful] use of force by an individual amounts to the crime of aggression. An act of aggression which is not part of an aggressive war (whether declared or undeclared) may give rise to State responsibility. But my delegation remains to be convinced that it constitutes a crime for an individual under international law'; on 26 June 2000, the delegation of the USA to the Preparatory Commission seconded this view as follows (on file with the author): '[t]he importance of articulating existing customary international law in the definition cannot be overemphasized.. .. Furthermore, as noted by the U.K. representative and expressly recognized by UNGA Resolution 3314, not all uses of force rise to the level of the crime of aggression'. On 13 Nov. 2000, Germany stated (PCNICC/2000/WGCA/DP.4, 6 (para. 23)): 'It has been stressed. .. that a solution for a generally acceptable definition of the crime of aggression must be firmly based on established customary international law. On that basis, an aggressive, large-scale armed attack on the territorial integrity of another State, clearly without justification under international law, represents indeed the very essence of this crime'.
77. PCNICC/2000/WGCA/DP.4, 6 (para. 10).
78. ICC-ASP/2/10, 234. For a critique of the collective intent to establish a military occupation and the suggestion to exclude those instances of the use of force from the definition which pursue the objective to enforce international law.
79. Suffice it to refer to the almost canonical debate between D. Bowett, Self-Defence in International Law (1958)
80. I. Brownlie, International Law and the Use of Force of States (1963).
81. compare this with, e.g., C. Gray, International Law and the Use of Force (3rd edn, 2008)
82. R. Kolb, Ius contra bellum. Le droit international relative au maintien de la paix (2003)
83. T. Franck, Recourse to Force (2002).
84. An explicit exception, as suggested in Leclerc-Gagné and Byers, 'A Question of Intent: The Crime of Aggression and Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention', 41 Case Western Reserve J Int'l L (2009) 379, is thus not necessary
85. For the purpose of this comment it is not necessary to rehearse the abundant literature on the subject; for a very nuanced analysis of the legal intricacies of the issue
86. see Murphy, 'Criminalizing Humanitarian Intervention', 41 Case Western Reserve J Int'l L (2009) 241
87. for one of the best arguments in support of a limited right to a genuine humanitarian intervention see Greenwood, 'Humanitarian Intervention: The Case of Kosovo', 10 Finnish Yrbk Int'l L (2000) 141
88. If, arguendo, a genuine humanitarian intervention is illegal under current international law, I am doubtful whether the exclusion of such a use of force from draft Art. 8bis of the ICC Statute will substantially contribute to its legalization; for a different view.
89. After a very stimulating philosophical argument, May, supra note 7, at 296, reaches a very similar conclusion: '[h]umanitarian intervention will remain very controversial at the level of asking about whether States should be condemned and sanctioned for engaging in them. But it is less controversial concerning prosecutions, since there are many reasons to think that State leaders and other individual human persons should not be convicted in humanitarian intervention cases '.
90. Greenwood, 'International Law and the Pre-emptive Use of Force: Afghanistan, Al-Quaida, and Iraq', 4 San Diego Int'l LJ (2003) 7
91. For the respective letters of 20 Mar. 2003 sent to the Security Council see S/2003/352; S/2003/351, and S/2003/350.
92. On the need to construe the crime of genocide restrictively see Kreß, 'The Crime of Genocide and Contextual Elements: A Comment on the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber's Decision in the Al Bashir Case', 7 J Int'l Criminal Justice (2009) 297
93. for the contrary view see Ferencz, 'Enabling the International Criminal Court to Punish Aggression', 6 Washington U Global Studies L Rev (2006) 13
94. Kreß, 'The International Criminal Court as a Turning Point in the History of International Criminal Justice', in A. Cassese (ed.), The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice (2009), at 143.
95. Opening speech of the American Chief Prosecutor, reprinted in Trial of German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal Sitting at Nuremberg Germany (2001), at 45
96. To overstretch the 'specificity' of the crime of aggression runs like a red thread through those contributions which are fundamentally critical of allowing the ICC to exercise its jurisdiction over this crime
97. On those issues see Clark, 'Ambiguities in Articles 5 (2), 121 and 123 of the Rome Statute', 41 Case Western Reserve J Int'l L (2009) 413