A Study Of The International Criminal Court’s Jurisdiction Over The Crime Of Aggression

The International Military Tribunal(IMT)proclaimed in the Nuremberg Judgment of 1946 that ‘To initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime;it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole’.However there was no charge against aggression after the WWII era.Crime of aggression did not come back to the international legal arena until the conclusion of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court(Rome Statute).The Rome Statute confirmed the Court’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression along with other core crimes,but also postponed the activation of the jurisdiction until further provision ‘defining the crime and setting out the conditions under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction with respect to this crime’ has been adopted.In June 2010,A whole series of amendments on the crime of aggression was adopted on the First Review Conference of the Rome Statute at Kampala.In December 2017,the Court’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression has been activated,which means that the definition was eventually written into the Rome Statute.Criminalisation of aggression has been challenged by some commentators before the start of the Review Conference,who claimed that individuals should never be held accountable for aggression and also denied the justification of the Court’s jurisdiction over the crime.These arguments re-emerged in the process of ratifications of the amendments as well as the activation of the Court’s jurisdiction over the crime,which played an important part in attitudes and positions towards the Court’s jurisdiction among member states.In the first part of chapter two,this dissertation looks into arguments against the criminalisation project and provides corresponding assessment.In the second part,this dissertation explores the significance of the court’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression in international law sphere,which also demonstrates the justification of the prosecution and adjudication of crime of aggression.In the next part this dissertation discusses the possibility of the effective exercise of jurisdiction by the Court.The Rome Statute neither defines the crime of aggression nor sets out the conditions under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction over the crime.In 2002 the Special Working Group on Crime of Aggression(SWGCA)was set up to make proposals for the First Review Conference.In June 2010,a whole series of amendments on crime of aggression was finally made due to considerable compromise made by different groups of delegates.However there was still widespread scepticism about the prospects of the amendments overcoming the legal and political difficulties posed by the negotiations.The question remains as to whether the agreed amendments meet the demands for effective prosecution and punishment of the crime,or whether the limits dictated by political constraints will severely hamper any chance of meaningful intervention by the International Criminal Court.This chapter revolves around three key questions of crime of aggression,namely the definitions of crime of aggression and acts of aggression,the role of Security Council as well as the question of state consent,aiming at settling the debate whether the Kampala Amendments was able to support the effective exercise of jurisdiction by the International Criminal Court.