The Ukraine War and the Crime of Aggression

The Ukraine War and the Crime of Aggression

The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, ongoing since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, entered into a new stage in 2022, when Russian forces invaded mainland Ukraine. Since then, reports of atrocities committed in conflict have made the headlines, including accounts of attacks on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners of war. The conflict has also caused a large stream of refugees who left the country or became displaced persons within Ukraine. While the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into the Situation of Ukraine, the Court’s jurisdiction cannot presently be exercised over the crime of aggression. The jurisdictional gap concerned has been increasingly gaining attention over the past months in view and proposals both for amending the ICC Statute and for setting up a Special Tribunal have been put forward. The lecture discusses these proposals within their wider context.

About Claus Kreß

Claus Kreß is a Professor of International Law and Criminal Law. He holds the Chair for German and International Criminal Law and he is the Director of the Institute of International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne. In addition to his scholarly work, comprising more than 200 publications on the law on the use of force, the law of armed conflicts and international criminal law, he has been a member of Germany’s delegations in the negotiations regarding the International Criminal Court since 1998. In 2019, he was appointed Judge ad hoc at the International Court of Justice in the Case of the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar). Since 2021, he serves as the Special Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on the Crime of Aggression.

This event is hosted by Edinburgh Centre for Public International Law 

Event Link

Register via Eventbrite