In 1946, the world witnessed the first-ever prosecutions of a state’s leaders for planning and executing a war of aggression. The idea of holding individuals accountable for the illegal use of force—the “supreme international crime”—was considered but ultimately rejected in the wake of the First World War. A few decades later, however, following the even more destructive Second World War, the victorious powers succeeded in coming together in a court of law at Nuremberg to prosecute the leaders of Nazi Germany for waging an aggressive war against other states. Ben Ferencz, a Nuremberg prosecutor has spent the past seven decades tirelessly working to ensure that the prevention and prosecution of aggressive war-making remain on the international agenda.
Now, with Ben Ferencz’s work in mind, and writing as the international community prepares to decide whether to activate the ICC jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, the authors in this symposium take stock both of what has been accomplished and of what remains to be done. Building on discussions in 2015 at the Harris Institute, this symposium reflects on broader issues of accountability for the illegal use of force under international law, with the goal of influencing broader scholarly efforts that continue to shape the debate on the scope, nature, and future of the criminalization of the illegal use of force.
SYMPOSIUM CONTRIBUTIONS
INTRODUCTION
Accountability for the Illegal Use of Force – Will the Nuremberg Legacy Be Complete?
Rebecca F. Green, Federica D’Alessandra & Juan P. Calderon Meza
ESSAYS
Accountability for Violations of the Prohibition against the Use of Force at a Normative Crossroads
Federica D’Alessandra
On the Adjudication of the Illegal Use of Force at the ICC
Anthony Abato
From Nuremberg to New York: The Final Stretch in the Campaign to
Activate the ICC’s Jurisdiction over the Crime of Aggression
Christian Wenaweser & Sina Alavi
Continued Debate Over the Crime of Aggression: A Supreme International Irony
Donald M. Ferencz
The Human Right to Peace
William Schabas
The Crime of Aggression in the ICC and State Responsibility
Dapo Akande & Antonios Tzanakopoulos
Accounting for Victim Constituencies and the Crime of Aggression:
New Questions Facing the International Criminal Court
Marissa R. Brodney
The Crime of Aggression and Modes of Liability – Is There Room
Only for Principals?
Volker Nerlich
Non-State Accessories Will Not Be Immune from Prosecution for Aggression
Juan P. Calderon-Meza
The Crime of Aggression under the Rome Statute and Implications for Corporate Accountability
MacKennan Graziano & Lan Mei
State Responsibility for Aggression: A Human Rights Approach
Frédéric Mégret
The ICC Preventive Function with Respect to the Crime of Aggression and International Politics
Héctor Olásolo & Lucia Carcano
What the ICC Can Learn from the Jurisprudence of Other Tribunals
Christopher Greenwood
Accountability for the Unlawful Use of Force: Putting Peacetime First
Leila Nadya Sadat
The Crime of Aggression: Following the Needs of a Changing World?
Sanji Mmasenono Monageng
The Missing Pieces in Article 8 bis (Aggression) of the Rome Statute
David Scheffer
The History of Aggression in International Law, Its Culmination in the Kampala Amendments, and Its Future Legal Characterization
M. Cherif Bassiouni
Epilogue: A Nuremberg Prosecutor’s Summation Regarding the Illegal Use of Armed Force
Benjamin B. Ferencz
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Launch Event:
Tuesday April 11th 12-1:30pm
12-12:15pm – Introductory remarks, Professor Gerald Neuman (HLS, Co-Director, Human Rights Program, J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law )
12:15- 12:20pm – Video message Benjamin Ferencz (Chief Prosecutor, Eizansgruppen Case, Nuremberg, HLS’43)
12:20- 12:30pm – Professor Martha Minow (Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law)
12:30-1:30pm – Panel discussion, with Professor Alex Whiting (HLS Professor of Practice) and Professor William Schabas (Professor Middlesex University, Leiden University), moderated by Federica D’Alessandra (Visiting Researcher, HLS)
Concluding observations, Professor Donald Ferencz (Convener, Global Institute for the Prevention of the Crime of Aggression, Visiting Professor, Middlesex University)