Challenges of Domestic Prosecution of War Crimes with Special Attention to Criminal Justice Guarantees
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DOI 10.15774/PPKE.JAK.2013.002 Challenges of domestic prosecution of war crimes with special attention to criminal justice guarantees Varga Réka doktori értekezés Témavezető: Prof. Dr. habil. Kovács Péter egyetemi tanár Társ-témavezető: Dr. habil. Gellér Balázs József egyetemi docens Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem Jog-és Államtudományi Doktori Iskola Budapest, 2012 1 DOI 10.15774/PPKE.JAK.2013.002 Köszönetnyilvánítás / Acknowledgement Hálás köszönettel tartozom Dr. Gellér Balázsnak, hogy egyetemi tanáromként felkeltette az érdeklődésemet a téma iránt és erre a szakterületre terelt. Szakmai irányítása és megjegyzései nélkül nem jutottam volna túl a dolgozat első fázisán. Hasonlóan hálás köszönet illeti Dr. Kovács Pétert, aki konstruktív észrevételeivel oroszlánrészt vállalt abban, hogy a dolgozatot kibővítsem, megfelelő szerkezetbe foglaljam és befejezzem. A dolgozat családi összefogás eredménye. Külön köszönettel tartozom ezért édesapámnak, hogy beszélgetéseinkkel hozzásegített ahhoz, hogy a témát tágabb összefüggéseiben is lássam. Hasonlóan hálás vagyok édesanyámnak és férjemnek, hogy a kisfiam körüli teendők átvállalásával időt adtak arra, hogy a dolgozattal foglalkozhassam. 2 DOI 10.15774/PPKE.JAK.2013.002 Table of contents I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 5 II. Evolution of international criminal jurisdiction, individual responsibility and the definition of war crimes; international obligations on repression of grave breaches and war crimes ...... 13 1. Evolution of international criminal jurisdiction ............................................................... 13 2. Evolution of individual criminal responsibility and development of war crimes in international law ................................................................................................................... 22 (i) Development of war crimes in international law ........................................................ 26 (ii) Individual responsibility versus collective responsibility?......................................... 30 Are wars collective in nature? ..................................................................................... 31 A case study: the Polish farmer .................................................................................... 32 There is no requirement of a collective element for war crimes .................................. 42 What’s the point? ......................................................................................................... 44 3. Overview of international obligations to repress war crimes ........................................... 47 4. Development of the concept of universal jurisdiction with respect to grave breaches .... 51 5. Law as a weapon .............................................................................................................. 56 6. A parallel example of extraterritorial jurisdiction: the US Alian Tort Statute ................. 60 III. Legal problems around the application of international criminal law................................ 64 1. Problems inbuilt in international law ............................................................................... 64 (i) Sovereignty and penalization ...................................................................................... 65 (ii) Effects of international law on national lawmaking and national jurisprudence: the ICC complementarity principle ........................................................................................ 70 Complementarity: contents of unwillingness and inability .......................................... 75 Complementarity: the ‘inaction’ criteria ..................................................................... 80 National laws as sources for the ICC ........................................................................... 89 Role of state cooperation in ICC proceedings ............................................................. 94 Complementarity versus universal jurisdiction? .......................................................... 95 (iii) Problems of direct applicability of international law ................................................ 99 International law – national law relationship generally ............................................. 99 Monism - dualism ....................................................................................................... 104 Can international law be really directly applicable? ................................................ 107 Relationship between self-executing norms and direct applicability ......................... 114 (iv) Specific problems related to universal jurisdiction ................................................. 116 2. Hurdles inbuilt in national law ....................................................................................... 121 (i) Implementation: a conflict with the legality principle? ............................................. 122 (ii) Consequences of basing the case directly on the international treaty – direct application ...................................................................................................................... 130 (iii) Consequences of basing the case on ordinary crimes ............................................. 133 (iv) Are there any controversies if national law punishes acts that are not war crimes? 139 (v) Place of the norm in the hierarchy of national laws ................................................. 144 (vi) Could the application of universal jurisdiction be contrary to the principle of legality? .......................................................................................................................... 144 3. Hurdles inbuilt in national jurisprudence / national application .................................... 147 (i) Are domestic courts ready to try war crimes cases? .................................................. 148 (ii) Domestic courts’ attitude towards universal jurisdiction ......................................... 155 Conditions often linked to the exercise of universal jurisdiction ............................... 164 3 DOI 10.15774/PPKE.JAK.2013.002 Trials in absentia ........................................................................................................ 167 Immunities .................................................................................................................. 168 Subsidiarity in the exercise of universal jurisdiction ................................................. 174 Private prosecutor or substitute private prosecutor .................................................. 178 Practical hurdles during the exercise of universal jurisdiction ................................. 178 IV. Possible ways of overcoming the hurdles ........................................................................ 181 1. On the level of international jurisprudence: effects of jurisprudence of international tribunals on domestic war crimes procedures .................................................................... 181 (i) Substantive criminal law aspects ............................................................................... 184 (ii) Criminal procedural law aspects ............................................................................. 186 (iii) Effects of the functioning of international tribunals on national justice systems ... 188 2. On the level of internal legislation ................................................................................. 194 (i) The importance of effective implementation techniques .......................................... 195 (ii) Specific aspects of implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ............................................................................................................................... 195 (iii) Common characteristics of national legislation on universal jurisdiction in Central Europe ............................................................................................................................ 198 (iv) Criminalization techniques in Central Europe ........................................................ 199 Hungary ...................................................................................................................... 201 Poland ........................................................................................................................ 209 Estonia ........................................................................................................................ 210 Lithuania .................................................................................................................... 211 3. On the level of internal jurisprudence ............................................................................ 212 (i) When domestic courts are trying to solve the problem… ......................................... 212 (ii) War crimes units ....................................................................................................... 218 (iii) Recommendations for Hungary .............................................................................. 224 (iv) Role of the judiciary in exercising universal jurisdiction ........................................ 227 (v) National case law on universal jurisdiction .............................................................. 228 V. Conclusions ......................................................................................................................