The Birth of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor: Historicity, Model, Deterrence?

Nuremberg, 29 April 2017

CILRAP and the International Nuremberg Principles Academy organized a launch of four books under the umbrella theme ‘The Birth of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor: Historicity, Model, Deterrence?’ in Courtroom 600 at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice on Saturday 29 April 2017. These were the new books:

Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 5, edited by Morten Bergsmo, Klaus Rackwitz and SONG Tianying;
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Deterrent Effect of International Criminal Tribunals, Nuremberg Academy Series No. 1 (2017), edited by Linda Carter and Jennifer Schense;
Abbreviated Criminal Procedures for Core International Crimes, edited by Morten Bergsmo; and
Commentary on the Law of the International Criminal Court, edited by Mark Klamberg.

The comprehensive volume Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 5 concerns the birth of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor in 2002 and 2003, in particular the work of the preparatory team for the Office. Forty-two chapters of previously unpublished materials – including an analysis by Professor Morten Bergsmo who co-ordinated the team and was the first Senior Legal Adviser of the Office – shed new light on the history and later development of the Office. The materials serve as a broadly-based resource for those who build capacity to investigate and prosecute core international crimes in other jurisdictions.

The first volume in the Nuremberg Academy Series is on the possible deterrent effect of the ICC and other international criminal tribunals. It contributes towards a discussion in international criminal justice which is as essential as it has been in national criminal justice for decades. This is the first volume in a new publication series of the Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher in co-operation with the International Nuremberg Principles Academy.

Abbreviated Criminal Procedures for Core International Crimes is the first publication to discuss the possibility of abbreviated procedures in situations where many more war crimes case-files have been opened than a criminal justice system can possibly manage to process. Finally, the Commentary on the Law of the International Criminal Court is the book-version of the online CLICC service.

The speakers were:

Mr. James Stewart, Deputy Prosecutor, International Criminal Court (formerly, senior prosecutor in Canada, at the ICTY and ICTR);
Judge Hanne Sophie Greve, Gulating Court of Appeal, Norway (formerly, Judge, European Court of Human Rights; member, UN Security Council Commission of Experts for the Former Yugoslavia);
Mr. Carlos Vasconcelos, Associate Federal Prosecutor-General, Brazil and Lecturer, University of Brasilia (formerly, Deputy Prosecutor, UN mission in East Timor; candidate, first ICC Prosecutor);
Mr. Klaus Rackwitz, Director, International Nuremberg Principles Academy (formerly, Eurojust and ICC Office of the Prosecutor);
Professor Morten Bergsmo, Peking University Law School, and Director, CILRAP (formerly, ICTY and ICC Offices of the Prosecutor);
Ms. SONG Tianying, Editor, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (formerly, Legal Adviser, ICRC East Asia Delegation);
Ms. Jennifer Schense, Founding Director, The House of Nuremberg and of Cat Kung Fu Productions (formerly, Coalition for the International Criminal Court);
Associate Professor Mark Klamberg, Stockholm University;
Mr. Ralph Hecksteden, Head, Legal Informatics Section, CILRAP; and
Judge Lennart Aspegren, formerly ICTR judge.