Universal Criminal Jurisdiction and an International Criminal Court

Bernhard Graefrath ^*1

Questions of Implementing a Code of Offences Against the Peace and Security of Mankind

The work of the United Nations International Law Commission on the Draft Code of Offences against the Peace and Security of Mankind has revived debate on the proper application of the Code in international practice. The recognition that states must cooperate if they are effectively to combat international crimes has, in recent decades, led to the conclusion of numerous conventions incorporating the principle of universal criminal jurisdiction: universal jurisdiction is meant to guarantee the prosecution and punishment of the offences defined in the conventions. Many states believe this is the only realistic way to implement the Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind. Others, however, view the effective implementation of the Code to be dependent not upon universal criminal jurisdiction, but rather upon the establishment of an international criminal court.

This polarization of views is not new. Changed international circumstances should, however, now make it possible to find a way to combine the advantages of universal criminal jurisdiction with the guarantees of legal protection that an international criminal court can provide. In this connection one should realize that recognition of both universal criminal jurisdiction and the competence of an international criminal court will ultimately only curtail concepts of sovereignty which are basically already outdated under the existing order of international law. This is true, at any rate, insofar as offences against the peace and security of mankind are concerned; acts constituting offences of this kind are international matters lying outside the area of state sovereignty. Accordingly, if states are to strengthen the international legal order, they must create as effective a mechanism as possible for the international prosecution of these offences.

1 ^* Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin.

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