International Courts and Tribunals

International Courts and Tribunals

 Introduction

There are many international courts and tribunals. Some international courts are non criminal and serve as a dispute resolution mechanism between states. Such as, for example, the International Court of Justice, which sits at The Hague in the Netherlands and is the principal United Nations judicial organ.

Some international courts are subject area specific, such as, for example, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which sits in Hamburg, Germany, and is tasked with resolving maritime disputes. 

Since the early 1990s, however, we have witnessed the resurgence of international criminal tribunals. 

International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Not many international criminal tribunals existed between the Nuremberg Tribunal at the end of World War II and the early 1990s. 

In the early 1990s, sparked by violent civil wars in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, the international community acted to create new accountability mechanisms. These included the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ad hoc international criminal tribunals created by the United Nations Security Council to prosecute those most responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda respectively. 

These tribunals had limited geographic jurisdiction to the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda respectively and also limited temporal jurisdiction.

The Rwanda tribunal, in particular, had jurisdiction over crimes committed in 1994 only. And the Yugoslavia tribunal had jurisdiction starting in 1991 at the start of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia.

The Rwanda tribunal closed down officially in 2015 and the Yugoslavia tribunal closed down in 2017. These tribunals have successfully prosecuted numerous individuals accused of the most heinous crimes.  

Other Country Specific Tribunals

After the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals, additional tribunals, also context and country specific, have been created. Some of such tribunals include the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. 

Some of these tribunals were created through agreements between the host country and the international community, and some follow a hybrid model. They employ a mix of international and domestic judges, prosecutors, and defense counsel, and they apply a mix of international and domestic laws. 

The most recent international criminal tribunal is the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a tribunal which is located at The Hague in the Netherlands and is tasked with investigating and prosecuting alleged members of the Kosovo Liberation Army for atrocities committed during the conflict in Kosovo.  

International Criminal Court

Last but certainly not least, the International Criminal Court, the only permanent international criminal tribunal, was created in 1998 with the negotiation and adoption of the Rome Statute.

The court became operational in 2002 and has successfully prosecuted several individuals.  The ICC statute covers war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. as well as the crime of aggression for states which have opted into this particular regime. The ICC statute applies in situations where either the offender is a member of, is a national of a member state, or the alleged crime is committed on the territory of a member state. 

The ICC, coupled with the various ad hoc and hybrid international criminal tribunals, have served an important accountability function and have played a significant role in the prevention of atrocity crimes.