Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on the contributors
- Preface
- 1 The Nuremberg trials: international law in the making
- 2 Issues of complexity, complicity and complementarity: from the Nuremberg trials to the dawn of the new International Criminal Court
- 3 After Pinochet: the role of national courts
- 4 The drafting of the Rome Statute
- 5 Prospects and issues for the International Criminal Court: lessons from Yugoslavia and Rwanda
2 - Issues of complexity, complicity and complementarity: from the Nuremberg trials to the dawn of the new International Criminal Court
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on the contributors
- Preface
- 1 The Nuremberg trials: international law in the making
- 2 Issues of complexity, complicity and complementarity: from the Nuremberg trials to the dawn of the new International Criminal Court
- 3 After Pinochet: the role of national courts
- 4 The drafting of the Rome Statute
- 5 Prospects and issues for the International Criminal Court: lessons from Yugoslavia and Rwanda
Summary
Introduction
The International Criminal Court came into existence on 1 July 2002. The new Court has jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes; but the Court can only try international crimes committed on or after 1 July 2002. Any national, from any of the more than eighty states that have ratified the Statute of the Court, can be a potential defendant before the new Court. In addition, the Court will have jurisdiction over crimes committed in state parties, even when perpetrated by nationals from states which have not become parties to the Statute. There are further grounds for jurisdiction but we need not dwell on them here. In this contribution I shall remain with the theme of the Nuremberg trials and use these trials as a springboard to explore three concepts which I think may help us to think about the ways in which the new International Criminal Court will operate. The three concepts I wish to explore are: complexity, complicity and complementarity.
Complexity
To understand what I mean by complexity in this context, let us consider some of the fundamental legal innovations of the Nuremberg judgment delivered by the International Military Tribunal. First, the notion of individuals having concrete duties under international law, as opposed to national law, was clearly enunciated, really for the first time, and later accepted by the international community of states. Until the Nuremberg trial, war crimes trials had been held at the national level under national military law.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- From Nuremberg to The HagueThe Future of International Criminal Justice, pp. 30 - 67Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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