UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Statutory limitations in international criminal law Kok, R.A. Publication date 2007 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Kok, R. A. (2007). Statutory limitations in international criminal law. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:27 Sep 2021 Statutory Limitations in International Criminal Law ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Prof. dr. J.W. Zwemmer ten overstaan van een door het college van promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de aula der Universiteit op vrijdag 2 maart 2007, te 14.00 uur door Ruth Alberdina Kok geboren te Wageningen Promotiecommissie: Promotores: Promotor: Prof. mr. A.H.J. Swart Co-Promotor: Prof. mr. H.G. van der Wilt Overige leden: Prof. dr. A. Eser Prof. mr. M.S. Groenhuijsen Prof. mr. C.F.Rüter Dr. E. van Sliedregt Prof. mr. S.A.M. Stolwijk Prof. mr. E. de Wet Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid Publication of this dissertation has been made possible in part by a fellowship of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. A commercial edition of this thesis will be published by T.M.C. Asser Press (The Hague) in 2007, and will be distributed by Cambridge University Press, available at: www.cambridge.org. 2 -ACKNOWLEDGMENTS- I write this foreword in the country where the idea of writing a doctoral thesis first crossed my mind: Rwanda. The suffering of the Rwandan people in 1999, five years after the end of the genocide, inspired me to study and work in the field of international criminal law. At present, again being confronted with the country’s struggle for peace, justice, and reconciliation; as well as the anger and fear among its citizens, it is clear to me that much remains to be accomplished in this area of law. Unfortunately, it is quite unlikely that the writing of this thesis will make any concrete difference for the people itself. However, the rapid development of international criminal law in the last decade is a testimony to the increased attention of the international community to international crimes. For that reason, I feel privileged to having had the opportunity to carry out this research. I would like to thank the following libraries and other academic institutions for assisting me in collecting material for this thesis: the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg im Breisgau, the Arthur Diamond Library of Columbia University in New York, the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the Peace Palace Library, and the libraries of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in The Hague and Arusha, respectively. A special word of thanks goes to the Members of the Doctorate Commission: Prof. dr. A. Eser, Prof. mr. M.S. Groenhuijsen, Prof. mr. C.F.Rüter, Dr. E. van Sliedregt, Prof. mr. S.A.M. Stolwijk, and Prof. mr. E. de Wet. I greatly appreciate the support provided by the Department of Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam. The comments and contributions of my promoter Prof. mr. A.H.J. Swart, as well as my co-promotor, Prof. mr. H.G. van der Wilt, were indispensable to the completion of this book. I am also very grateful to my sisters Annegien and Dieke, as well as to my dear friends Surya and Hedwig, whose friendship and support means a lot to me. I am also indebted to Bart, who has made my life more enjoyable by giving me his love and care. Finally, my parents, Anneke and Gijs, have my deepest thanks. Kigali, 15 January 2006 3 -TABLE OF CONTENTS- List of Abbreviations I. Introduction 1. Statutes of limitation and international crimes §1 2. International crimes §5 2.1. International crimes in general §5 2.2. Core international crimes §6 2.2.1. Genocide §7 2.2.2. Crimes against humanity §8 2.2.3. War crimes §9 2.3. Torture, forced disappearance of persons and other human rights violations §10 2.3.1. Torture §11 2.3.2. Forced disappearance of persons §12 3. Research objective and research questions §13 4. Outline of the study §17 II. Origin and concept of statutory limitations 1. Introduction §27 2. Statutory limitations in general §28 3. Limitations to criminal actions and to enforcement of sentences §29 4. Some historical remarks §30 4.1. Civil law systems §30 4.2. Common law systems §33 4.3. The Sharia law system §35 5. Definitions of terms §36 5.1. Calculation of prescription periods §37 5.2. Suspension §38 5.3. Interruption §39 5.4. Extension §40 5.5. Continuing crimes §41 6. Statutory limitations in the major legal systems §42 6.1. Civil law systems §42 6.2. Common law systems §43 6.2.1. Introduction §43 6.2.2. Common law system §44 6.2.3. The United States system §45 6.2.3.1. The Federal Code §46 6.2.3.2. States’ penal codes §47 6.2.3.3. The Model Penal Code §48 6.3. The Sharia law system §49 7. Statutory limitations and other non-exculpatory defences §50 7.1. Other defences §50 7.2. Abuse of process doctrine §51 7.3. Staleness of offence doctrine §52 7.4. Nolle prosequi §53 4 III. Domestic legislation 1. Introduction §54 2. Explanation of the structure of the research §57 3. Date of legislation excluding the applicability of statutory limitations to international crimes §61 4. General and specific (draft) legislation excluding the applicability of statutory limitations §66 5. Specific (draft) legislation excluding the applicability of statutory limitations to international §67 crimes 6. No specific (draft) legislation excluding the applicability of statutory limitations to §69 international crimes 7. Non-penal statutes §70 8. General conclusions §72 IV. International Instruments and Documents 1. Introduction §79 2. International instruments and documents adopted during World War II and its aftermath §80 3. The 1968 UN Convention on Statutory Limitations §85 3.1. Travaux Préparatoires §85 3.2. Contents §88 3.3. Objections §89 3.3.1. Material scope §90 3.3.2. Temporal scope §95 4. The 1974 European Convention on Statutory Limitations §96 5. The 1984 Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or §98 Punishment 6. The 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons §99 7. Human Rights Conventions §100 7.1. The European Convention on Human Rights §100 7.2. The 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights §111 7.3. The American Convention on Human Rights §112 7.4. The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights §117 8. The ILC Draft Codes of Offences against the Peace and Security of Mankind §118 9. The Statutes of the Ad Hoc Tribunals §121 10. The 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court §125 10.1. Travaux Préparatoires §125 10.2. Retroactivity §131 10.3. Complementarity §132 11. The Statutes of the Internationalised Tribunals §136 11.1. The Panels in East Timor §136 11.2. The Special Court for Sierra Leone §137 11.3. The Extraordinary Chambers in Cambodia §138 12. The UN General Assembly Declarations and Resolutions §139 13. The UN Human Rights Commission §141 14. Ratifications of international instruments §144 V. Country Studies 1. Preliminary observations §146 5 Part A: Crimes committed during World War II 2. Introduction §147 3. Germany §149 3.1. Western Germany §151 3.1.1. Statutory limitations before 1949 §151 3.1.2. Statutory limitations in the period from 1949 to 1979 §153 3.1.3. Some concluding observations §159 3.2. Eastern Germany §160 4. The Netherlands §163 4.1. Statutory limitations before 1971 §163 4.2. The 1971 Act containing provisions on the elimination of statutory limitations §168 with respect to war crimes and crimes against humanity 4.2.1. Contents §168 4.2.2. History of the Act §169 4.2.3. Objections §170 4.2.4. Some concluding observations §173 5. France §174 5.1. The 1964 Act concerning the imprescriptibility of crimes against humanity §174 5.2. The cases of Barbie and Touvier §175 5.3. Material scope of the 1964 Act §178 5.4. Retroactivity of the 1964 Act §184 5.5. Some concluding observations §185 6. Italy §186 6.1. Introduction §186 6.2. Statutes of limitation in Italian law §187 6.3. The Priebke case §188 6.3.1. Trial proceedings §188 6.3.2. First decision of the Rome Military Court §189 6.3.3. Second decision of the Rome Military Court §190 6.3.4. Decisions of the Rome Military Court of Appeal and Court of Cassation §191 6.4. Some concluding observations §193 7. Argentina §195 7.1.