Salzburg Law School on International Criminal Law, Humanitarian Law
and Human Rights Law
8th Summer Session, Sunday 6 - Friday 18 August 2006
Cases Pending Before the ICC
and Appeals Concerning Jurisdiction and Admissibility
The Salzburg Law School on International Criminal Law, Humanitarian
Law and Human Rights Law is an annual course under the academic
supervision of Prof. Otto Triffterer, editor of the Commentary on the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. This year's Eighth
Summer Session will in particular focus on international criminal law
enforcement through the ICC, cases pending before the ICC, decisions
to be taken by the Chambers and Appeals thereto.
Since the formal establishment of the ICC on 1 July 2002, three States
Parties to the Rome Statute (the Republic of Uganda, the Democratic
Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic) have referred a
situation to the OTP in accordance with article 13 litera (a).
Furthermore, the United Nations Security Council by Resolution 1593
(2005) has referred the situation of Darfur (Sudan) to the ICC. The
Prosecutor has opened three formal investigations on the Republic of
Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur. In October 2005,
the first arrest warrants for five senior leaders of the Ugandan
Lord's Resistance Army were unsealed by Pre-Trial Chamber II.
Pre-Trial Chamber I followed in March 2006 regarding a warrant of
arrest for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese national, alleged founder
and leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais, who has meanwhile
become the first person to be arrested and transferred to the ICC.
With the ICC facing its first accused, SLS will pay particular
attention to the provisions on jurisdiction and admissibility in the
Rome Statute, the competences and limits of the Prosecution and the
Pre-Trial Chambers in the initial phase of criminal proceedings.
Emphasizing on practical aspects of international criminal law
enforcement, SLS will elaborate on the role of all protagonists in
international criminal proceedings, not only of the judges - six
judges, chosen by lot to serve for a period of three years in 2003,
have recently been (partly re-)elected during the resumed 4th session
of the ASP in January 2006 - and of the prosecution but also of the
defence, with special consideration to the rights of the accused.
Victims' rights will be a field of main consideration at the eighth
session of SLS. The Rome Statute introduced a revolutionary regime of
victim participation in international criminal proceedings. On this
basis, in a decision of 17 January 2006 Pre-Trial Chamber I authorized
six Congolese victims to participate in proceedings before the ICC
already during the pre-trial stage. SLS will scrutinize the impact of
this decision as well as other outstanding developments related to
victims, e.g. the regulations of the trust fund for victims, which
have finally been adopted by the ASP in December 2005. SLS will
provide for background information on the particular situations and
will discuss future ways to proceed within the framework of the Rome
Statute.
Further important aspects to be discussed concern state cooperation,
which is crucial for the work of the Court, as has just been
demonstrated by the successful surrender of an alleged perpetrator to
the ICC.
Next to the above mentioned main subjects, the Eighth Session of SLS
will cover latest developments with regard to other international
criminal courts and tribunals, such as the ad-hoc Tribunals for former
Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the special
mixed Panels for East Timor, or the new Special Tribunal for Cambodia,
as well as Truth and Conciliation Commissions. Other questions of
continuing relevance, for instance, the position of the United States
with regard to the ICC, international law in the "war on terror" and
the trial against Saddam Hussein will be covered as well. Case studies
will focus e.g. on the complex structure of superior responsibility
and a national case involving the international crime of aggression.
In addition, at its Eighth Session, Salzburg Law School will launch a
three years project to be continued by its Ninth Session and finalized
by its Tenth Anniversary Session in 2008. Building on the discussions
during the lectures, participants will identify possible amendments to
the Rome Statute - may they be of a drafting nature, practical
improvements evolving from the daily work of the Court, or visionary
proposals to further strengthen international justice - and elaborate
draft proposals to be submitted to the Assembly of States Parties in
autumn 2008, a year ahead of the envisaged convening of the First
Review Conference in 2009, seven years after the entry into force of
the Rome Statute.
Speakers of the Eighth Session will be most distinguished scholars and
practitioners in the field of international criminal law, among them,
Gilbert Bitti, Senior Legal Advisor to the Pre-trial Division, ICC,
Prof. Roger Clark, Board of Governors Professor, Rutgers University
School of Law, Washington; member of the Samoan delegation to the Rome
Conference and the ASP (t.b.c.), Richard Dicker, Director,
International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch, Prof. Benjamin
Ferencz, A former Nuremberg War Crime Prosecutor, author and frequent
lecturer on international criminal courts and world peace (website
www.benferencz.org), Tathiana Flores-Acuna, Trust Fund Liaison
Officer, Victims Participation and Reparations Section, ICC, Prof.
William Schabas, Professor of Human Rights Law, National University of
Ireland Galway, Eire, Director Irish Centre for Human Rights, Prof.
Michael P. Scharf
<http://law.case.edu/faculty/faculty_bio.asp?id=142&adj=0> , Professor
of Law, Case Law School and Director, Frederick K. Cox International
Law Center, and Prof. Otto Triffterer, Professor for Austrian and
International Criminal Law and Procedure, University of Salzburg.
The academic program runs Monday 7 through Thursday 17 August, daily
from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with a free week-end. The
course consists of lectures, work shops and case studies and will be
held at the University of Salzburg, Faculty of Law, a 16th- century-
Baroque- style palace located in the centre of the old town. In
addition, the Salzburg Law School provides for in-depth working
materials, full board accommodation and a rousing social programme for
a reasonable price! Participants will obtain a certificate of
attendance, but may also take an exam for which 8 credits according to
the European Credit Transfer System are available.
To apply, please send your CV and a letter of motivation until 30 April 2006.
For further information visit our - still provisional - homepage
www.sbg.ac.at/salzburglawschool
<http://www.sbg.ac.at/salzburglawschool> or contact
<astrid.reisinger@sbg.ac.at <mailto:astrid.reisinger@sbg.ac.at> >
Astrid Reisinger Coracini
Executive Director SLS
კონფერენციები და ა.შ., სამართლებრივი და არა მარტო
