General Principles of Law in the Decisions of International Criminal Courts and Tribunals

General Principles of Law in the Decisions of International Criminal Courts and Tribunals Summary:

By Fabian O. Raimondo

Publisher:   Martinus Nijhoff Publishers / Brill Academic

Number Of Pages:   212

Publication :   2008-10-15

ISBN-10 / ASIN:   9004170472

ISBN-13 / EAN:   9789004170476

Product Description:

International lawyers usually disregard the vital functions that general principles of law may play in the decisions of international courts and tribunals. As far as international criminal law is concerned, general principles of law may be crucial to the outcome of an international trial, inter alia because the conviction of an accused in respect of a particular charge may depend on the existence of a given defence under this source.This volume examines the role that general principles of law have played in the decisions of international criminal courts and tribunals. In particular, it analyses their alleged 'subsidiary' nature, their process of determination, and their transposition from national legal systems into international law. It concludes that general principles of law have played a significant role in the decisions of international criminal courts and tribunals, not only by filling legal gaps, but also by being a fundamental means for the interpretation of legal rules and the enhancement of legal reasoning.

CONTENTS Preface ......................................................................................... XI Abbreviations .............................................................................. XIII Arbitral Awards and Judicial Decisions ..................................... XV Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................... 1 Chapter 2: General Principles of Law: A Source of International Law ................................................. 7 2.1. Preliminary Remarks ......................................................... 7 2.2. Early International Arbitral Tribunals ................................ 8 2.2.1. The Formulation of Applicable Law ....................... 9 2.2.2. Five Examples from before the Adoption of the PCIJ Statute ............................................................. 10 2.2.3. A Brief Analysis of International Practice .............. 16 2.3. The PCIJ and the ICJ ......................................................... 17 2.3.1. The Adoption of the PCIJ Statute ........................... 17 2.3.2. The Scope of Article 38 .......................................... 20 2.3.3. How to Find General Principles of Law in the Judgments and Advisory Opinions of the PCIJ and the ICJ .............................................................. 21 2.3.4. Eight Judgments and Advisory Opinions ............... 22 2.3.5. An Analysis of the Judgments and Advisory Opinions ................................................... 32 2.4. The Autonomy of General Principles of Law as a Source of International Law .......................................... 36 2.4.1. Scholarly Views on General Principles as a Formal Source of International Law ....................... 36 2.4.2. General Principles as a Formal and Material Source of International Law ................................... 39 2.4.3. A Subtle Difference between General Principles of Law and General Principles of International Law ................................................. 41 2.5. The Subsidiary Nature of General Principles of Law ........ 42 2.6. The Determination of General Principles of Law .............. 45 VIII CONTENTS 2.6.1. The ‘Vertical Move’ ............................................... 46 2.6.2. The ‘Horizontal Move’ .......................................... 50 2.6.3. The Absence of Comparative Legal Research in PCIJ and ICJ Practice ............................................. 57 2.7. The Transposition of General Principles of Law ............... 58 2.7.1. Application by Analogy .......................................... 59 2.7.2. Traditional Arguments against Transposition ......... 62 2.7.3. The ‘Special Character’ of International Law ........ 64 2.7.4. Structural Differences between International Law and National Legal Systems ........................... 65 2.7.5. Transposition to New Branches of International Law .................................................... 68 2.8. Concluding Remarks .......................................................... 70 Chapter 3: General Principles of Law in the Decisions of International Criminal Courts and Tribunals ... 73 3.1. Preliminary Remarks ......................................................... 73 3.2. Early International Criminal Tribunals .............................. 74 3.2.1. The IMT .................................................................. 75 3.2.2. The IMTFE ............................................................. 81 3.3. Contemporary International Criminal Courts and Tribunals ............................................................................ 84 3.3.1. The ICTY ................................................................ 84 3.3.2. The ICTR ................................................................ 143 3.3.3. The ICC ................................................................... 149 3.3.4. The SCSL ................................................................ 158 Chapter 4: Analysis of Practice and of Relevant Scholarly Writing ................................................. 165 4.1. The Autonomy of General Principles of Law as a Source of International Criminal Law ............................... 165 4.1.1. General Principles of Law as a Formal Source of International Criminal Law ....................... 165 4.1.2. General Principles of Law as a Formal and Material Source of International Criminal Law ...... 168 4.1.3. A Difference between Three Sets of Legal Principles? ............................................................... 169 CONTENTS IX 4.2. A Subsidiary Source of International Criminal Law? ........ 171 4.3. The Determination of General Principles of Law .............. 173 4.3.1. Recourse to Judicial Decisions and Scholarly Writing .................................................... 173 4.3.2. The ‘Vertical Move’ ................................................ 175 4.3.3. The ‘Horizontal Move’ ........................................... 177 4.3.4. Last Observations on the Issue of Determination ... 183 4.4. The Transposition of General Principles of Law ............... 183 4.4.1. Substantive and Procedural Criminal Law Analogies ................................................... 184 4.4.2. The Problems of Transposition ............................... 185 4.5. Concluding Remarks .......................................................... 190 Chapter 5: Conclusions ........................................................... 193 Bibliography .............................................................................. 197 Index .......................................................................................... 209 PREFACE When, by the end of 2002, I decided to study the role of general principles of law as a source of international criminal law, I was a bit surprised that the effort had not already been made, especially in view of the importance of the topic and the voluminous literature on international criminal law. I was thus happy to have the chance to write a book on an original topic and, in doing so, to contribute to the of that fi eld of international law. I carried out a great deal of the investigation during my three-year stay at the University of Amsterdam as a research fellow. In addition, many people have helped in the writing of this book. I would like to thank Professor Gutiérrez Posse (University of ) for encouraging me to write on this topic. Special thanks are due to Professors Nollkaemper and de Wet (University of Amsterdam) for their interest in and support of my work. I am grateful to Professors Delmas-Marty (Collège de France), Lambert-Abdelgawad (CNRS), and Fronza (University of Trento), who gave me the wonderful opportunity to present my preliminary fi ndings at the Collège de France and the University of Bologna in the context of their research project ‘Les sources du droit international pénal’. I am grateful to my former colleagues in the Amsterdam Centre for International Law, in particular Nwamaka Okany, for their fellowship and constructive views on earlier drafts of the book. The very kind librarians at the Law Faculty and the Peace Palace Library at The Hague have helped me a lot with my research; thanks so much to them too. I am indebted to Jaap van den Herik for helping me to put the whole work together. Special thanks are also due to Professors Ambos (University of Göttingen), Brus (University of Groningen), Van Genugten (University of Tilburg), Swart (University of Amsterdam), and Van der Wilt (University of Amsterdam) for their constructive comments. Finally, many thanks to Larissa van den Herik for her invaluable help in many forms.

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