Original scientific paper
International Criminal Courts
Davor Krapac
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
International criminal courts are modern judicial institutions of international organisations such as the UN. They were established through different instruments of international law, with the aim of prosecuting and punishing particularly grave international crimes that affect the entire international community in cases where national criminal courts have failed to punish the perpetrators. In this paper, following some introductory definitions, the author points out that the number of international criminal courts has grown in recent times, which raises various issues regarding the interpretations and forms of the application of international criminal law. Among these courts, according to traditional categorisations, there are ad hoc courts – the best known in Croatia being the ICTY or the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia – and the permanent International Criminal Court. The main characteristics of these courts show that they cannot simply be compared to national criminal courts, because their aims and objectives, in terms of their breadth and number, are different from the aims and objectives of national criminal courts. This difference is the consequence of their operation in a “globalised” legal system, which is not consistent in its structure as the internal, hierarchical legal system of a particular state is. International criminal courts act as parity judicial bodies of the international community, which have been granted autonomy in respect of individual member states through international legal instruments. With such judicature, the international community attempts to achieve its political goals: to maintain world peace and stability, and ensure the application of humanitarian law and the protection of fundamental human rights. The author continues to present in more detail the main characteristics of international criminal courts regarding their founding acts, jurisdiction, structure, composition, competence and cooperation with states. In the third part of the paper, he directs his attention to the regulations by which the international community (or more precisely, the UN Security Council), which established the ad hoc courts, guarantees the external independence of the judges of international criminal courts, and grants parties instruments that may be used to achieve judicial impartiality in specific criminal trials. A brief analysis of these regulations indicates that they generally follow the provisions of contemporary international human rights law concerning the right to an independent and impartial judge, although particular objections may be raised, especially in relation to the brief term of office and the insufficiently profiled requirement for professional experience of judges of ad hoc tribunals, and also concerning the unusually strong influence of common law on the provisions regarding the disqualification of biased judges. In conclusion, the author invites the reader to a more detailed discussion of the issue of the extent to which common-law institutions, taking into account the positive and negative experiences of the practical application of common law, may contribute to achieving the principle of a fair trial before international criminal courts, in order to provide an answer to the question regarding the normative aspects of the legitimacy of these courts.
Keywords
international criminal law; international criminal courts; criminal procedure, judicial independence and impartiality
Hrčak ID:
72679
URI
Publication date:
16.9.2011.
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