The interpretive process in International Criminal Law (›ICL‹) is characterised by a conflict between the requirements for stability and change. On the one hand, ICL provides for the ›criminal‹ responsibility of individuals. Thus, there is an enhanced requirement for legal certainty: According to the principle of legality, the addressee of the law must be able to identify the prohibited conduct in advance in order to be able to avoid criminal sanctions. On the other hand, however, ICL forms part of ›international‹ law. Hence, it derives to some extent from international treaties. Whereas the forms of criminal conduct are continuously evolving, treaties are rather static instruments – they cannot be adapted to a changing environment within a short period of time. Thus, reality is developing at a pace that the law cannot always match. In consequence, there is a certain need to account for evolving circumstances within the framework of interpretation. The aim of this book is to review the consequences of this conflict for the interpretation of ICL. How can the conflicting requirements be brought into balance? Can substantive rules of ICL be interpreted in a ›dynamic‹ fashion to the detriment of the accused without violating the principle of legality? How do international criminal courts and tribunals deal with this issue?

This book is dedicated to the memory of Sir Richard May, who passed away on 1 July 2004, and to the rich legacy he has left behind in the area of international criminal law. It contains in-depth analyses of a range of issues critical to the development and understanding of international criminal law, written by contributors who worked in some way with Sir Richard during his tenure at the ICTY, particularly during his last years as Presiding Judge of the Milosevi? Trial. It contains a Foreword by the President of the ICTY, Theodor Meron, and substantive work in three main parts: one chapter concerning the development and understanding of human rights; five chapters addressing international criminal law issues in the context of ICTY proceedings; and two chapters focusing on substantive aspects of international criminal law. All the chapters analyse international criminal law as applied by the ICTY, as well as the ICC, ICTR and other international or hybrid criminal tribunals, and are all authored by persons in a position to give great insight into the subject matter discussed.

Presents theories, practices and critiques alongside each other to engage students, scholars and professionals from multiple fields. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This unique book brings together leading experts from diverse areas of public international law to offer a comprehensive overview of the approaches to evolutionary interpretation in different international legal regimes. It begins by asking what interpretation is, offering the views of expert authors on the question, its components and definitions. It then comments on situations that have called for evolutionary interpretation in different international legal regimes, including general international law, environmental law, human rights law, EU law, investment law, international trade law, and how domestic courts have, on occasions, interpreted treaties and other international legal instruments in an evolutionary manner. This timely, authoritative compendium offers an in-depth understanding of the processes at work in evolutionary interpretation as well as a prime selection of the current trends and future challenges.

This book offers the first detailed analysis of, and guide to, the interpretation of international crimes defined in the Rome Statute.

Since the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998, international criminal law has rapidly grown in importance. This second edition of the first volume of an acclaimed three-volume Treatise on International Criminal Law deals with the foundations and general part of international criminal law, and general principles of international criminal justice. Taking into account the scholarly literature, not only sources written in English but also in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, the book draws on the author's extensive academic work and practical experience in international criminal law. This second edition of the authoritative volume has been completely revised, updated, and rewritten in some parts. These comprehensive updates ensure that Kai Ambos' Treatise remains an indispensable reference work for academics and practitioners of international criminal law.

As communities struggle to make sense of mass atrocities, expectations have increasingly been placed on international criminal courts to render authoritative historical accounts of episodes of mass violence. Taking these expectations as its point of departure, this book seeks to understand international criminal courts through the prism of their historical function. The book critically examines how such courts confront the past by constructing historical narratives concerning both the culpability of the accused on trial and the broader mass atrocity contexts in which they are alleged to have participated. The book argues that international criminal courts are host to struggles for historical justice, discursive contests between different actors vying for judicial acknowledgement of their interpretations of the past. By examining these struggles within different institutional settings, the book uncovers the legitimating qualities of international criminal judgments. In particular, it illuminates what tends to be foregrounded and included within, as well as marginalised and excluded from, the narratives of international criminal courts in practice. What emerges from this account is a sense of the significance of thinking about the emancipatory limits and possibilities of international criminal courts in terms of the historical narratives that are constructed and contested within and beyond the courtroom.

In recent years there has been a flourishing body of work on the Law of Treaties, crucial for all fields within international law. However, scholarship on modern treaty law falls into two distinct strands which have not previously been effectively synthesized. One concerns the investigation of concepts which are fundamental to or inherent in the law of treaties generally - such as consent, object and purpose, breach of obligation and provisional application - while the other focuses upon the application of treaties and of treaty law in particular substantive (e.g. human rights, international humanitarian law, investment protection, environmental regulation) or institutional contexts (including the Security Council, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization). This volume represents the culmination of a series of collaborative explorations by leading experts into the operation, development and effectiveness of the modern law of treaties, as viewed through these contrasting perspectives.

Under the relevant rules of international law, treaties are interpreted in accordance with the ordinary meaning of the language they use, their object and purpose, and the intention of the drafters, but also in light of the subsequent practice of its parties. This subsequent practice can shed light on articles whose meaning is ambiguous and subsequent agreement can even alter the meaning of treaty provisions. At a time when many of the most important international treaties are more than fifty years old, subsequent practice plays an increasingly important role in their interpretation. Treaties and Subsequent Practice discusses the role and relevance of this subsequent practice in the process of dynamic treaty interpretation. The book provides a comprehensive treatment of this topic by eminent commentators, combining contributions which focus on practical cases with chapters examining the theoretical underpinnings of treaty interpretation. The concept of subsequent practice is situated in the more general context of treaty law and international law, looking at different cases and doctrinal questions to assess its policy dimensions. The book addresses the question of whether subsequent practice plays a more or less significant role in different areas of international law, and whether it can be employed as a partial substitute for formal treaty amendments. It also includes two previously unpublished reports issued by the International Law Commission's Study Group on this topic.

This course investigates the relationships between international criminal law and other branches of international law. It begins by examining four issues of general international law: the principal sources of international law, jurisdiction and immunities, State responsibility, and use of force. It then explores internationalhumanitarian law, focusing on definitions of war crimes and difficulties in linking IHL and ICL. Next, it examines refugee law, paying particular attention to the exclusion of war criminals from refugee protection and to international crimes that may be related to the rights and treatment of refugees. The final chapter explores the relationship between ICL and human rights law, examining the position of human rights within the Rome Statute of the ICC, as well as the human rights aspects of genocide, crimes against humanity, various procedural rights relating to fair international trials and the contribution of human rights fact-finding mechanisms.