Ending impunity for the crime of aggression.

• Author: Ferencz, Benjamin B.

Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over the crime of aggression has been deferred for reasons that are not persuasive. Aggression has already been adequately defined. The UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court are linked by the existing ICC Statute adopted in Rome. Compromises already reflected in the Rome Statute will be difficult to revise by new amendments. Ambiguities are best resolved by ICC Judges. Nuremberg's condemnation of "the supreme international crime" should not be repudiated. The ICC must be enabled to deter aggressions by bringing transgressors to justice.

AGGRESSION HAS ALREADY BEEN ADEQUATELY DEFINED

1. From Nuremberg in 1946 to Rome in 1998

   The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (IMT), composed of esteemed judges from the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and the United States, acknowledged that ex post facto punishment was abhorrent to the law of all civilized nations. They observed that the general principles of justice should be respected but not followed blindly.

   The tribunal was explicit that declaring aggression to be "the supreme international crime" was not an exercise of arbitrary power on the part of the victors, as has often been alleged, but the reflection of an evolutionary process that had evolved after countless millions of people had been killed in brutal warfare. (1) "To assert that it is unjust to punish those who in defiance of treaties and assurances have attacked neighboring states without warning is obviously untrue, for in such circumstances the attacker must know that he is doing wrong, and so far from it being unjust to punish him, it would be unjust if his wrong were allowed to go unpunished." (2) "This law is not static," said the Tribunal, "but by continual adaptation follows the needs of a changing world." (3)

   Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter defined Crimes Against Peace as "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing." (4) This broad definition was the basis for war crimes trials in Tokyo and elsewhere. (5) The Nuremberg Charter and Judgment were adhered to by 19 more nations and unanimously affirmed by the first General Assembly of the United Nations. (6) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson said, in his Opening Statement: "We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well." (7) Jackson made clear that if law is to serve a useful purpose "it must condemn aggressions by any other nations, including those who sit here now in judgment." (8)

   To help implement its plan for a criminal code to be enforced by an international criminal court, the U.N. General Assembly appointed Special Committees on the Question of Defining Aggression. The definition of aggression was reached by consensus as an integrated and indivisible package and approved by the General Assembly in 1974 as Resolution 3314. Agreement was made possible by a number of rather vague compromises and exculpating clauses of such creative ambiguity that nations with opposing views could interpret its contradictions to support their own political objectives. (9) The consensus definition began with a generic declaration that: "Aggression is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the U.N." (10) Obvious illustrations, such as invasion, military occupation, bombardment, blockade or attack were listed, but it was stipulated that the Security Council could determine that these prima facie indicators were not aggression and that other acts were aggression. (11) It was left to the Council to decide whether any act of a state was aggression or not.

   The International Law Commission (ILC), composed of independent experts from many countries, after extensive deliberation reached the conclusion that aggression was a customary law crime and "it should be left to practice to define the exact contours of the concept of crimes against peace ... as identified in article 6 of the Charter of the Nurnberg Tribunal." (12) The ILC also concluded that until an act of aggression by a State has taken place, no individual can be held accountable for the crime. (13) "It would thus seem retrogressive to exclude individual criminal responsibility for aggression ... 50 years after Nuremberg." (14) Those who argue for greater certainty fail to note that many valid criminal statutes contain vague phrases, such as "fair trial," "due process," and similar clauses that require judicial interpretation. Indeed, the Rome Statute itself limits its jurisdiction to "the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole." (15) War crimes include "outrages against personal dignity." (16) Such nebulous descriptions have remained uncontested even though they would hardly qualify as models of legal precision. The argument that aggression can not be tried by the ICC because the crime has not been adequately defined is simply not persuasive.

2. Fiddling with Aggression in Rome in 1998

   On July 17, 1998, in Rome, for the first time in human history, delegates from all over the world voted overwhelmingly to create an international criminal court. The crime of aggression was listed, in Article 5 (1), as one of the four core crimes, following genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. (17) But then a most unusual and unique temporary restriction blocked the court from exercising its jurisdiction over aggression. No other provision in the ICC...