Teaching Guide Information

Presentation

International and European Criminal Law is a new area of Law which does not simply consist in a compound of Criminal Law and International Law or European Law. The upgrading of Criminal Law to an International level is linked to important conceptual changes, since the role of International Criminal Law has specific aims which affect the whole system. Therefore, it is important to analyse the historical roots of International Criminal Law. This historical background helps to understand the actual structure and configuration of International Criminal Law.  The lectures focus as well on the analysis of the specific conception of norms and sanctions in International Criminal Law as well as the methodological difficulties to build a system of criminal liability taking into account that there are two different criminal law traditions which should flow into a common system. Of importance will be as well the analysis of the relationship between international jurisdiction and Criminal Law domestic jurisdictions - with special consideration of the implications for the principle of sovereignty and the foundation of Criminal Jurisdiction. Closer attention deserves the actual status of International Criminal Law in the frame of the ICC-Statute and the ICC-jurisprudence.  Finally, some lectures will be dedicated to the peculiarities of the European Criminal Law as a form of Supranational Criminal Law. 

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of Criminal Law and International Law is necessary to follow the lectures.

Contents

International and European Criminal Law

2020

Nuria Pastor Muñoz

§ 1. International Criminal Law: basic concepts and Legitimacy.

1. Criminal Law in the International Context.

2. Basic concepts: International Criminal Law (stricto sensu); Supranational Criminal Law (reference to European Criminal Law); International Mutual Legal Assistance; Criminal Jurisdiction beyond National Borders.

3. Legitimacy of International Criminal Law from the perspective of the Principles of Sovereignty and Democracy: relationship State-International Criminal Law (sovereignty), the subjection of national citizens to International Criminal Law dispositions (democracy).

4. International Criminal Law from the perspective of Philosopy of Law: auctoritas vs. Justice, formal vs. material legitimacy paradigms.

5. Methodological context: International Criminal Law between Anglo-American Law and Civil Law.

§ 1. Foundations of International Criminal Law

1. Concept of International Criminal Law senso stricto.

2. Objectives of International Criminal Law. The traditional paradigms — retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitations, restoration — in the light of International Criminal Law.

3. Concept and function of norm and punischment in International Criminal Law.

4. Protected Interests: contents and criteria.

5. International Criminal Law from the perspective of the Principles of Criminal Law. The “nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege” in International Criminal Law. Objections from the perspective of both Anglo-American and Civil Law.

6. Dogmatic Foundations of Criminal Law? Consequences for the conceptual construction as well as for the legal certainty.

7. Enforcement of International Criminal Law. Notes to the specificity of enforcement through Domestic Criminal Law Systems.

§ 3. History of International Criminal Law

1. History until 1919.

2. Versailles and the Leipzig Trials.

3. International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.

4. International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

5. International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

6. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

7. Other Courts.

§ 4. International Criminal Court.

1. Introduction: The Statute.

2. Function and Jurisdiction of the ICC

3. Trigger Mechanisms.

4. Principle of Complementarity.

5. Procedure, Sanctions and Enforcement.

§ 5. General Part of International Criminal Law

1. Applicable Law.

2. Interpretation and the Principle of “nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege”.

3. Individual Criminal Responsibility.

4. Structure of the International Crime: Material Elements, Mental Element, Grounds for Excluding Criminal Responsibility.

5. Forms of Participation; Attempt and Abandonment; Omission.

§ 6. Special Part of International Criminal Law

1. Genocide.

2. Crimes against Humanity.

3. War Crimes.

4. Aggression. Kampala 2010.

§ 7. Implementation of ICC Law into Domestic Criminal Law.

1. Role of International Criminal Law in the context of Domestic Criminal Law: systems.

2. Juxtaposition of two Criminal Law Systems: consequences and risks.

3. Principle of Universal Jurisdiction.

§ 8. European Criminal Law (Visiting Lecturer: Dr. Steven Dewulf)

1. Concept and differences to International Criminal Law.

2. Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

3. Influence of European Criminal Law in the Domestic Law of the EU-Members.

4. Criminal Law Enforcement in Europe.

Teaching Methods

After some introductory lectures on the foundations of International Criminal Law, the students prepare themselves with some readings (essays, Decisions of the International Tribunals). 

Evaluation

Essay on a topic to choose. More details: first lecture.

Bibliography and information resources

basic bibliography:

Satzger, Helmut, International and European Criminal Law, 2018.

WERLE/JESSBERGER, Principles of International Criminal Law, third edition, 2014.

complementary bibliography:

Ambos, Kai, Treatise on International Criminal Law, Oxford University Press, 2013-2016.

Arajarvi, Noora, Between Lex Lata and Lex Ferenda - Customary International (Criminal) law and the Principle of Legality, 15 Tilburg L. Rev. 163 (2010)

Brix, Brian, Radbruch's Formula and Conceptual Analysis, 56 Am. J. Juris. 45 (2011), available at http://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/450.

Cassese, Antonio, International Criminal Law, 3^rd ed., Oxford, 2013.

Cryer, Robert, International Criminal Law vs State Sovereignty: Another Round?, The European Journal of International Law Vol. 16 no.5, 2006, 979-1000.

Cryer, Robert/Friman, Hakan/Robinson, Darryl/Wilmshurst, Elizabeth, An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure, 2014.

Dana, Shahram, Beyond Retroactivity to Realizing Justice: A Theory on the Principle of Legality in International Criminal Law Sentencing, 99 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 857 (2009)

Friedlander, Robert A., The Foundations of International Criminal Law: A Present-Day Inquiry, 15 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 13 (1983). Available at: http://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol15/iss1/4

Mann, Itamar, The Dual Foundation of Universal Jurisdiction: Towards a Jurisprudence for the ‘Court of Critique’, (2010) 1(4) Transnational Legal Theory 485–521.

Marchuck, Iryna, The Fundamental Concept of Crime in International Criminal Law, Berlin, 2014.

Mariniello, Triestino, The Nuremberg Clause and beyond: Legality Principle and Sources of International Criminal Law in the European Court's Jurisprudence, 82 Nordic J. Int'l L. 221 (2013)

Nagan, Wiston P./Root, Joshua L., The Emerging Restrictions on Sovereign Immunity: Peremptory Norms of International Law, the U.N. Charter, and the Application of Modern Communications Theory, 38 N.C. J. Intl L. & Com. Reg. 375 (2013), available at http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub/589.

Schabas, William, The International Criminal Court, 2^nd ed., 2016.

Schabas, William, International Criminal Law, 2016.

Tomulet, Cristina, The Cornerstone of Legality: Case Study International Criminal Law, International Criminal Law, 2013 CDP 117.

Tomuschat, Christian, The Legacy of Nurnberg, Journal of International Criminal Justice 4 (2006), 830-844.