CRIME OF AGGRESSION: SOME LEGAL ISSUES OF THE DEFINITION IN THE NUREMBERG STATUTE AND ROME STATUTE OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Crimes against peace were first enshrined in the Statute of the International Military Tribunal (Article 6(a)), which was a novel in international law. In the present Article analyzed is the formation of the legal concept of responsibility for the crime of aggression in the Statute and the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal and its meaning. The author notes that at the London Conference in 1945, the participants in fact deviated from the definition of an «aggressive war», while in the Judgment of the IMT the concepts of aggression and aggressive war are used almost synonymously. The Nuremberg trial has shown that international criminal justice plays an important role in the maintaining peace and international security; the International Criminal Court continues this trend. The jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (Article 5) potentially includes the crime of aggression. The development of its definition was completed at the Review Conference of State Parties of the Rome Statute of the  International Criminal Court in 2010 (Kampala, Uganda) by adoption by consensus of amendments containing the definition of the crime of aggression (Article 8-bis) and the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction (Article 15-bis and 15-ter). As the basis for the definition of the crime of aggression, the wording of Article 6a) of the Statute of the Nuremberg Tribunal is taken. The above definition, insofar as it relates to the definition act of a state, fully follows the main points of the definition of aggression of the UNGA 1974(3314). Articles of Elements and Understandings of the crime of aggression should be understood in the light of Art. 31 (3) (a) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. States have reached agreement on the mechanisms of the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court. In order for this definition to become operational, at least thirty countries need to be ratified (this was achieved in autumn 2016). Moreover, the entry into force of the amendments is the subject of an additional decision of the states on this.

Nuremberg Tribunal, the crime of aggression, International Criminal Court, International Law Commission, Rome Statute, Review Conference

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