Situational Gravity Under the Rome Statute

Heller, Kevin Jon

doi:10.1007/978-90-6704-495-0_10

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…It has been established by the OTP that these situations involved thousands of wilful killings and large-scale sexual violence and abductions and that, collectively, they have resulted in the displacement of over five million people. 118 Other situations before the court mirror similar crimes.…”

Section: A the African Criminal Court Argumentmentioning

confidence: 94%

‘To be or not to be?’ The African Union and its Member States Parties' Participation as High Contracting States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998)

Chigara

Nwankwo²

2015

Nordic Journal of Human Rights

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This article examines, under the light of international law, African states' fascination and fall out with the ICC. It examines the challenge to international institutions and to international justice for high crimes posed by the quasisupranational African Union's (AU) emergent practice of ordering its member states parties not to co-operate with ICC arrest warrants against African heads of states/ governments. The legal substance of the AU claims and the AU's own interpretations of the standards of sovereign immunity and universal jurisdiction are also examined. The article shows that emergent AU recalcitrance to ICC orders is difficult to dismiss even though it may be contrary to current international law, particularly article 53 of the Geneva Convention on the Law of Treaties which nullifies resort to domestic/local law as a justification for breach of the strictures of international law. In particular, AU claims that universal jurisdiction and sovereign immunity should be redefined to suit their concerns contradict recent international efforts to combat impunity for international crimes.

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Section: A the African Criminal Court Argumentmentioning

confidence: 94%

‘To be or not to be?’ The African Union and its Member States Parties' Participation as High Contracting States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998)

Chigara

Nwankwo²

2015

Nordic Journal of Human Rights

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“…Proceeding with an investigation into Israeli settlements would constitute a massive departure from the OTP's past practice. As one commentator describes it: 40 Nonetheless, the situation was seen by some commentators, and perhaps the dissenting judge, as one of inadequate or borderline gravity. 42…”

Section: The Scale Of the Crimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet Israeli settlers make up roughly just 10 per cent of the population of the occupied territory. 78 74 ICC, Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Judgment on the Prosecutor's Appeal against the Decision of Pre-Trial Chamber I entitled 'Decision on the Prosecutor's Application of Arrest, Article 58', ICC-01/05, Appeals Chamber, 13 July 2006 (Situation in the DRC), separate and partly dissenting opinion of Judge Pikis, [40] (noting that the crime may fail to satisfy the gravity criteria when its commission does not threaten the 'objects of the law in criminalising the conduct'). 75 Pictet (n 53) 283.…”

Section: Gravity Defined By the Policies Of The Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

When Gravity Fails: Israeli Settlements and Admissibility at the ICC

Kontorovich

2014

Isr. law rev.

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In the wake of the UN General Assembly's recent recognition of Palestinian statehood, the Palestinian government has made clear its intention to challenge in the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) the legality of Israeli settlements. This article explores jurisdictional hurdles for such a case. To focus on the jurisdictional issues, the article assumes for the sake of argument the validity of the merits of the legal claims against the settlements.The ICC only takes situations of particular 'gravity'. Yet settlements are not a 'grave breach' under the Rome Statute. No modern international criminal tribunal has ever prosecuted crimes that do not involve systematic violence and physical coercion. The ICC's gravity measure involves the number of persons killed; for settlements it would be zero. Indeed, the ICC Prosecutor triages situations by the numbers of victims; settlements do not appear to have direct individual victims. Finally, the ICC would at most have jurisdiction over settlement activity only from the date of Palestine's acceptance of jurisdiction. Settlement activity in this time frame would not immediately cross the ICC's gravity threshold.

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“…Recently scholars have doubted the usefulness of the “mass scale” factor in prosecutorial decisions of the Office of the Prosecutor in the ICC (OTP). Criticizing the dominance of the quantitative factor of number of victims in the OTP's prioritization policy, Heller () proposed instead to adopt qualitative factors of situational gravity. Kalpouzos and Mann () suggested to de‐scale the “shock value” of the cases brought before the ICC and shift attention to banal crimes, such as the plight of the asylum seekers in Europe (in itself a phenomenon characterized by quantitative mass‐scale).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass Atrocity, Mass Testimony, and the Quantitative Turn in International Law

Keydar¹

2019

Law Soc Rev

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The article identifies and analyses the development it labels the “quantitative turn” in international criminal law. Addressing the cumulative effect of the large numbers of witnesses in international processes, the article considers quantity as an integral, and substantively beneficial, component of the law's response to atrocity crimes. The article develops a theorized understanding of the relationship between mass atrocity and mass testimony and provides a taxonomy of the functions that the quantity of testimonies fulfills in international trials: the evidentiary, didactic, epistemic, and restorative functions. Focusing on a recent case before the International Criminal Court in the matter of The Prosecutor v. Bemba, the article demonstrates how the different players in the international justice system—Prosecution, Defense, Victims, and the Court—employ the functions of quantity, while negotiating concerns over manageability and scale. The goal of this article is to prompt a debate and a more careful consideration of the potential benefits of a meaningful participation of witnesses and victims in post‐atrocity proceedings. This is particularly important given the dominance of the efficiency paradigm in international criminal law (ICL) discourse, which directly impacts the quantitative turn. The article forges new ways for ICL institutions to maintain a plurality of voices and their commitment to victims while safeguarding the rights of the accused.

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Situational Gravity Under the Rome Statute

Cited by 12 publications

References 14 publications

‘To be or not to be?’ The African Union and its Member States Parties' Participation as High Contracting States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998)

‘To be or not to be?’ The African Union and its Member States Parties' Participation as High Contracting States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998)

When Gravity Fails: Israeli Settlements and Admissibility at the ICC

Mass Atrocity, Mass Testimony, and the Quantitative Turn in International Law

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