Research On The Legal Issues Of Trial In Absentia In The International Criminal Court

As the first permanent court in history to punish individuals for the most serious international crimes,the International Criminal Court has won the attention and support of the international community through its own efforts and cooperation with sovereign countries,and has made good achievements in safeguarding human rights and safeguarding world peace and security.According to the Paragraph 2 of Article 63 of the Rome Statute,the Court allows the Trial Chamber to trial the defendant in absentia.However,in the trial practice of the International Criminal Court,the rules of trial in absentia have exposed many problems.In order to meet the needs of judicial practice and prevent defendants from using existing imperfect regulations to abuse their rights,it is extremely urgent to improve the rules of the International Criminal Court for trials in absentia.The rules of trial in absentia in the International Criminal Court are not only an important legal basis for the Court to protect human rights,safeguard judicial justice and improve efficiency,but also a supplement to the ordinary criminal trial rules of the Court.The legal sources of trial in absentia mainly fall into two categories,one is the establishment of rules on trial in absentia in the Draft Of Rome Statute,the other is the types and practical experience of trial in absentia in other international military courts,and finally the International Criminal Court decides to recognize partial trial in absentia.In the decades since the establishment of the rules of trial in absentia,the rules have been "recruited" once.In 2013,the Conference of States Parties added three supplementary rules for trial in absentia to deal with the new situation in the Ruto case,which is an important step in the improvement of the absentia trial rules.Nevertheless,owing to the defects and delay of the rules of trial in absentia,there are still three problems in the rules.The first problem is the narrow scope of the rules of trial in absentia in the International Criminal Court.In order to maintain the authority of the Court,the Court in the legislation of applicable condition of absentia strictly limit,resulting in absentia rules can’t deal with complex situation encountered in the judicial practice,but in the trial of specific cases,the trial chamber and break through the original rules apply,the theory and practice is not appropriate to the situation,Therefore,the application of trial by default should be increased when the defendant deliberately delays the proceedings and is not fit to appear in court,so as to solve the problem that the application scope of trial by default is too narrow.The second problem is that the International Criminal Court has insufficient human rights safeguards for trials in absentia.Due to the absence of the defendant at the trial,his right to defense,right to know and relief will be reduced.Moreover,the current absentia rules of human rights safeguard measures of the lack of practicability,and the absent defendant faces many obstacles in the realization of his rights.Therefore,a specific realization path is put forward for the right of defense,right to know and relief.The human rights of absentee defendants are fully protected by clarifying the standard of free legal aid,improving the quality of defense,clarifying the degree of pre-trial notice and burden of proof,clarifying the grounds for appeal,and granting absentee defendants more rights of relief.The third problem is the lack of operability of the service rules of trial in absentia in the International Criminal Court.The Court is not special provision absentia service rules,served in the Rome Statute of general rules for absentia program operability,embodied in:arrived way using chaos,arrived the standard fuzzy,international refused to judicial assistance and so on,resulting in absentia to work can’t develop smoothly,thus affecting the litigation process.Therefore,it is necessary to further refine service rules by clarifying the applicable order of service channels,clarifying service standards and urging cooperation requests for national service to ensure timely and effective service.Finally,the thesis discusses the relationship between China and the International Criminal Court.Although China has not joined the International Criminal Court,it has been committed to supporting the work of trial in absentia in the International Criminal Court,and properly learning the useful practical experience of trial in absentia in the International Criminal Court,in order to provide some reference for the perfection and development of China’s criminal trial in absentia system.