The International Criminal Court: from Rome to Kampala

The International Criminal Court: from Rome to Kampala (Kampala Compromise)

"The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 as the first permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals for the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, as set forth by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.  The ICC is designed to complement existing national judicial systems.  However, the Court can exercise its jurisdiction if national courts are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute such crimes, thus becoming a “court of last resort”, leaving the primary responsibility to exercise jurisdiction over alleged criminals to individual States.

Perpetrators of the most heinous crimes have become the primary concern of the international community as a whole. And for the purpose of putting an end to impunity the ICC has been established, in line with the Rome Statute. 

The objective of this thesis is to lay emphasis on the crime of aggression. In the same spirit, back in June 2010 a definition of this crime was put “en relief”, known as the Kampala Compromise, since the exercise of jurisdiction by the ICC over this crime was postponed until the adoption of a provision defining it. Accordingly, this thesis shall try to outline this “step-forward”, by explaining the substance of the Compromise. This will be followed by an assessment of this evolution.

Prior to that, this study reviews in general lines the establishment, the structure and the jurisdiction of the ICC. Furthermore, the crime of aggression will also be tackled along the most crucial phases. For that purpose it is worthwhile taking into consideration four different phases:

-         The Treaty of Versailles of 1919;

-         The Nuremberg Tribunal;

-         The Tokyo Tribunal;

-         Definition of “aggression” by the UN General Assembly in 1974.

These are indeed the four most important “stations” along the way to criminalize aggression, preliminary to the adoption of the definition of the crime of aggression by the Kampala Compromise, in a way to enable the ICC to exercise its jurisdiction over this crime in particular." Click here to read the full text.

 * Feel free to use it for educational reasons.