This document is a project report submitted by Rohit Bishnoi in partial fulfillment of an LLM degree in criminal law from Manipal University Jaipur. The report discusses international criminal law, including its sources in public international law and treaties. It describes crimes under international criminal law like genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It also discusses the application of international criminal law in national jurisdictions and by international courts like the International Criminal Court.

1. A PROJECT REPORT
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENTOF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF
LLM (CRIMINAL)
BY- ROHIT BISHNOI (211304040)
DEPARTMENT OF LAW
MANIPAL UNIVERSITY JAIPUR
JAIPUR 303 007, RAJASTHAN, INDIA
2022

2. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW
 INTRODUCTION
 SOURCES OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL
LAW
 APPLICATION OF SOURCES
 HOW IT WORKS
 INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL OFFENCES

3. PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW
 In general, public international law governs the
actions of states,
 How states interact with each other and individual
citizens,
 Public international law involves rules and
principles that deal with the conduct, rights and
obligations of states and international
organizations, as well as dealing with relations
among states

4. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL
LAW
 International criminal law is a subset of public
international law.
 While international law typically concerns
interstate relations, international criminal law
concerns individuals.
 In particular, international criminal law places
responsibility on individual persons—not states or
organizations—and proscribes and punishes acts
that are defined as crimes by international law.

5.  International criminal law is a relatively new body of
law, and aspects of it are neither uniform nor universal.
 For example, some aspects of the law of the ICTY are
unique to that jurisdiction, do not reflect customary
international law and also differ from the law of the
ICC.
 Although there are various interpretations of the
categories of international crimes, this lecture will deal
with crimes falling within the jurisdiction of
international and hybrid courts, including the ICTY,
ICTR, SCSL, ECCC, and the ICC.

6.  These crimes comprise Genocide, Crimes Against
Humanity, War Crimes and the Crime Of
Aggression.
 They do not include piracy, terrorism, slavery, drug
trafficking, or other international crimes.
 International criminal law also includes laws,
procedures and principles relating to modes of
liability, defenses, evidence, court procedure,
sentencing, victim participation, witness protection,
mutual legal assistance and cooperation issues

7. SOURCES OF ICL
 As international criminal law is a subset of public
international law, the sources of ICL are largely the
same as those of public international law.
 The five sources of ICL used by international and
hybrid criminal courts generally are
1) treaty law;
2) customary international law (custom, customary
law);
3) general principles of law;
4) judicial decisions (subsidiary source); and
5) learned writings (subsidiary source).

8.  The sources of law can sometimes overlap and have a
dynamic relationship.
 For example, a treaty can reflect, become or influence
the development of customary international law and
vice versa.
 A judgment of an international court may influence the
development of treaty and customary international law.
 Generally, international and hybrid courts use treaties
and custom as the main sources of international
criminal law, in addition to their own governing
instruments (which may include treaties).

9.  The five sources of ICL roughly correlate with the classic
expression of the sources of international law contained in Article
38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ):
a) international conventions, whether general or particular,
establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting States;
b) international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted
as law;
c) the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations;
d) […] judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly
qualified publicists of the various nations, as subsidiary means for
the determination of rules of law.

10. APPLICATION OF SOURCES
 The relevance and importance of these sources in national criminal
jurisdictions differ between countries.
 For example, in some jurisdictions, the direct source of international
criminal law is national legislation incorporating ICL.
 In this instance, treaty and customary international law cannot be
used as a direct source.
 Conversely, some courts can apply treaty law but not customary
international law, while in others, custom can be applied as well.
 Moreover, even if national legislation is the direct source of the
applicable law, international criminal law treaties, commentaries on
them and international judicial decisions are often used as aids to
interpret the national law and are sometimes considered persuasive
(not binding) precedent.

11. Foundations of International Criminal
Law
 Nuremberg Principles
– Genocide
– War Crimes children,
– Crimes against Humanity [extended to violence
against women and children, including internal
violence]
• Security Council ad hoc Courts [Violate Article 2]
• ICC Statute [by treaty in the absence of a legislature] –
Add Aggression [ > 7 years after definition.]

12. International Criminal Court
Authorization
 “Nothing in the present [UN] Charter
shall prevent Members of the United
Nations from entrusting the solution of
their differences to other tribunals by
virtue of agreements already in existence
or which may be concluded in the
future.”

13. International Criminal Court
“There can be no global justice unless the worst of
crimes--crimes against humanity--are subject to the
law.
In this age more than ever we recognize that the
crime of genocide against one people truly is an
assault on us all--a crime against humanity. The
establishment of an International Criminal Court
will ensure that humanity’s response will be swift
and will be just.”
Kofi Annan

14. Criminal Jurisdiction of the ICC
 Article 5
(a) “The crime of genocide;
(b) “Crimes against humanity;
(c) “War crimes;
(d) “The crime of aggression” (once a provision is
adopted...defining the crime).

15. Genocide
(a) “Killing members of the group;
(b) “Causing serious bodily or mental harm to
members of the group;
(c) “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions
of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;
(d) “Imposing measures intended to prevent births
within the group;
(e) “Forcibly transferring children of the group to
another group.”

16. Crimes against Humanity
Article 7
(a) “Murder;
(b) “Extermination;
(c) “Enslavement;
(d) “Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) “Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of
physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of
international law;“

17. (f) “Torture;
(g) “Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced
pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of
sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) “Persecution against any identifiable group or
collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic,
cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or
other grounds that are universally recognized as
impermissible under international law, in connection
with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime
within the jurisdiction of the Court;”

18. War Crimes [Article 8]
 (a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely,
any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the
provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
(i) Willful killing;
(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(iii) Willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;
(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by
military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
(v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the
forces of a hostile Power;
(vi) Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the
rights of fair and regular trial;
(vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;
(viii) Taking of hostages.

19. (b) (viii) “The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the
Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian
population into the territory it occupies, or the
deportation or transfer of all or parts of the
population of the occupied territory within or
outside this territory.”
[“ Ethnic Cleansing”, ]

20.  Article 8
2(c) “In the case of an armed conflict not of an
international character, serious violations of Article
3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 12
August 1949, …”
[Erodes national sovereignty]

21.  Article 9
Elements of Crimes
1. “Elements of Crimes shall assist the Court in the
interpretation and application of articles 6, 7 and 8.
They shall be adopted by a two thirds majority of
the members of the Assembly of States Parties.”
[Legislation by the Assembly of States Parties.
Circumvents the UN and its Security Council!]