On 6 and 7 October 2023, scholars of international criminal law, international humanitarian law, and the law of treaties as well as representatives of States and of civil society gathered at the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna to discuss the multiple legal, technical, and policy questions related to possible amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Acts of aggression committed against Ukraine and other crimes under international law committed in the context of the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine, have spotlighted existing gaps in the international justice architecture.
This concerns, most prominently, the Rome Statute’s restrictive jurisdictional regime over the crime of aggression, which i.a. precludes the International Criminal Courtfrom exercising its jurisdiction over a crime of aggression arising from an act of aggression committed by a non-State party. It also concerns remaining gaps in the Rome Statute’s subject matter jurisdiction and exceptions from the jurisdictional reach of the ICC over crimes covered by an amendment. Such jurisdictional exceptions are hardly justifiable from an international rule of law perspective. At the same time, attempts to bridge gaps with ad hoc jurisdictions in certain situations may be prone to allegations of selective enforcement of international criminal law. A principled and sustainable solution that aims at strengthening the Rome Statute system must therefore address shortcomings of the Statute.
The Vienna Conference on Amendments was organised in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs and was held in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was the first event of a twin conference project of the University of Vienna and the Charles University (Prague) focussing on current legal developments in the enforcement of the crime of aggression and other crimes under international law. The Prague Conference ‘Towards Accountability for the Crime of Aggression Committed Against Ukraine’ will take place 10.11.-11.11.2023.
