08 July 2025
Ein Verbrechen sucht ein Gericht
Russlands Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine verletzt das Gewaltverbot der UN-Charta in aller Deutlichkeit, bleibt strafrechtlich allerdings bislang ungesühnt. Der Europarat und die Ukraine reagieren mit einem Sondertribunal, das hochrangige Verantwortliche für das Verbrechen der Aggression zur Rechenschaft ziehen soll – trotz politischer und verfassungsrechtlicher Hürden. Es bündelt internationale Unterstützung und setzt ein starkes Zeichen gegen Straflosigkeit bei Angriffen auf die internationale Rechtsordnung. Ein ungewöhnlicher Schritt, der das Völkerstrafrecht grundlegend herausfordert. Continue reading >>
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04 June 2025
Genocide in Gaza?
“Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.” This was the claim raised by South Africa before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague just two and a half months after Hamas' large-scale terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. South Africa alleges that Israel's military counteroffensive is not (primarily) directed against Hamas, but rather aims to destroy the group of Palestinians in Gaza as such. This accusation carries significant political and legal weight. However, proving the necessary intent to destroy is difficult; it should not be accepted lightly. At any rate, as Israel's warfare continues and becomes increasingly brutal, the evidence for genocide is mounting. Continue reading >>09 April 2025
How Hungary’s Withdrawal from the International Criminal Court Affects the Credibility of the European Union
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán launched another attack on the rules-based world order. He invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under an arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, for a state visit to Budapest. On this occasion, Orbán announced Hungary’s withdrawal from the ICC, which he defined as “a politically biased” institution. With this move, Hungary undermines the EU’s long-standing and consolidated support for the ICC. Continue reading >>
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26 March 2025
The Price of Getting Duterte
The arrest and transfer of Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC was certainly good news for the heavily beleaguered Court. But the price of getting Duterte could be considerable. The manifest entanglement with Philippine politics is likely to harden Southeast Asian skepticism towards international criminal justice. Existing fears of external politicization are enhanced with a scenario of internal political turmoil, reinforcing Southeast Asian hesitation toward the ICC. Continue reading >>
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27 February 2025
A Glimpse of Hope for the Rohingya
On Thursday, 13 February 2025, a federal criminal court in Buenos Aires, Argentina, took a significant step toward international criminal accountability by issuing arrests warrants for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and 24 other Myanmar military officials. This marks the first public arrest warrants to be issued against the Myanmar military in a universal jurisdiction case. This legal development represents a rare moment of hope for the roughly one million Rohingya forced to live in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Continue reading >>
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21 February 2025
Criminalizing Knowledge
When does sharing information become an act of disloyalty to the state? Three bills advancing through Israel’s Knesset aim to answer this question decisively: any cooperation with international justice mechanisms, particularly the International Criminal Court (ICC), would constitute a betrayal of the state punishable by up to life imprisonment. This legislative package marks a dramatic shift from merely opposing international criminal jurisdiction to criminalizing the very act of documentation and information-sharing about potential human rights violations. For Israeli scholars researching international humanitarian law, the message is clear: our academic work could become a criminal offense if it finds its way to international courts. Continue reading >>
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23 December 2024
The ICC Under a New Threat
Since the ICC announced arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, the world has started to observe open equivocation from France and other European states about executing those arrest warrants. This inevitably raises the question whether it had been too easy in the past for nations of the West to profess “unflinching support” for the ICC when all the accused persons were Africans; even though the conducts of some of them (consider, for instance, the defendants from Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire) came nowhere close to the extravagant cruelty on full display in Gaza, despite rulings of the International Court of Justice and the relentless appeals of the UN Secretary General. Continue reading >>
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06 December 2024
A “Democratic Exception” to ICC Jurisdiction
On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and the former Minister of Defence, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in the ongoing Israel-Gaza War. Equally contentious was the response of leading Western states – including Germany and France – who have questioned or openly rejected treaty obligations to enforce the warrants. This is a conspicuously fraught position for countries who previously welcomed 2023 ICC arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin in legally identical circumstances. Continue reading >>27 November 2024
The Silence of the Israeli Supreme Court Judges
The arrest warrants by the ICC for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity are a red card for the Israeli legal system indicating grave doubts whether the Israeli legal system fulfills the complementarity requirement. Paradoxically, an indictment on the Israeli justice system arrives after the Israeli Supreme Court has recently fortified its position. Yet, the more the Court expanded its reach into the political arena, the less it could fulfill its core role of defending basic human rights. Continue reading >>
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08 November 2024
Farewell to the Rules-Based Order
As political analysts debate the reasons for Trump’s victory, one contributing factor is surely the utter failure of Biden’s Gaza policies. As the US has continued to fund an Israeli war of annihilation against Gaza, the democratic ticket became a hard sell for many who care about Palestinians. Yet, Gaza has also triggered a veritable renaissance of international litigation. With Gaza destroyed and Trump in the White House, this tension may have reached a terminal point. And yet, I argue, the ghost of a rule-based order lingers in our political imagination despite its inability to shape outcomes. Continue reading >>
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