1. 1. Jurisdiction: Universality Principle; War Crimes, Crimes against Peace and
Crimes against Humanity;
Under this principle, each and every state has jurisdiction to try particular offences. The
basis for this is that the crimes involved are regarded as particularly offensive to the
international community as a whole. There are two categories that clearly belong to the sphere
of universal jurisdiction. These are piracy and war crimes.
In addition to piracy, war crimes are now accepted by most authorities as subject to
universal jurisdiction, though of course the issues involved are extremely sensitive and highly
political. By international law defined that crimes against peace, violations of the law and
customs of war and crimes against humanity as offences within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal
for which there was to be individual responsibility. This resolution is approved unanimously
by General Assembly of the United Nations. The General Assembly of UN adopted one more
convention which contain provision of universal jurisdiction over grave breaches. Such grave
breaches include willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, unlawful deportation of
protected persons and the taking of hostages.
crimes against peace consist of the commission by the authorities of a state of acts of
aggression. In theory this is not controversial, but in practice serious problems are likely to
arise within the framework of universal jurisdiction. The Crimes against the Peace and
Security of Mankind is an individual responsibility. Because of the violation of the peace of
humanity, each person will be held accountable one by one and each state must take
appropriate measures to establish its jurisdiction over the norms set out in the Convention.
Crimes against humanity clearly cover genocide and related activities. They differ from
war crimes in applying beyond the context of an international armed conflict, but cover
essentially the same substantive offences. crimes against humanity are aimed at any civilian
population and are prohibited regardless of whether they are committed in an armed conflict,
international or internal in character and that crimes against humanity refer to inhumane acts
of a very serious nature, such as willful killing, torture or rape, committed as part of a
widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population on national, political, ethnic,
racial or religious grounds.
We have several facts about on the court decisions which is reference to war crimes, crimes
against peace and crimes against humanity. The first sample is the supreme court decision of
Spain decided in the Genocide case that jurisdiction would cover only acts of genocide in
which Spanish nationals were victims. However that decision was overturned by
constitutional court which decided that the domestic jurisdiction provision with regard to
crimes against humanity was not limited to cases involving Spanish nationals who were victims
2. of genocide and that no tie to Spain was needed in order to initiate a complaint. One more case
is about decided by the District Court of Jerusalem and the Supreme Court of Israel. Eichmann
was prosecuted and convicted under an Israeli law for war crimes, crimes against the Jewish
people and crimes against humanity. The fact that the crimes were committed prior to the
establishment of the state of Israel did not prevent the correct application of its powers
pursuant to universal jurisdiction under international law. Israel’s municipal law merely
reflected the offences existing under international law.
2. Sources of International law - Equity and International Law, Judicial
Decisions and Writers;
Equity and international law
There are several cases which references to equity as a set of principles constituting the
values of the system. The one of the sample of cases is disputes between India and Pakistan.
the Tribunal agreed that equity formed part of international law and that accordingly the
parties could rely on such principles in the presentation of their cases. Equity has been used
by the courts as a way of mitigating certain inequities, not as a method of refashioning nature
to the detriment of legal rules. Its existence, therefore, as a separate and distinct source of law
is at best highly controversial. by cases it is defined that it is bound to apply equitable principles
as part of international law, and to balance up the various considerations which it regards as
relevant in order to produce an equitable result.
The use of equitable principle has been marked in the law of the sea convention. For
example, provides that conflicts between coastal and other states regarding the exclusive
economic zone are to be resolved ‘on the basis of equity.
Equity may also be used in certain situations in the delimitation of non-maritime
boundaries. Where there is no evidence as to where a boundary line lies, an international
tribunal may resort to equity. We have a case study of the Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali, in
which was a dispute between the states about frontier pool. And the court noted that the line
should divide the pool of Soum in an equitable manner. This would be done by dividing the
pool equally.
Judicial Decisions
the decisions of the Court have no binding force except as between the parties and in
respect of the case under consideration, the Court has striven to follow its previous judgments
and insert a measure of certainty within the process: so that while the doctrine of precedent
as it is known in the common law, whereby the rulings of certain courts must be followed by
other courts, does not exist in international law, one still finds that states in disputes and
3. textbook writers quote judgments of the Permanent Court and the International Court of
Justice as authoritative decisions. English judges, for example, create law in the process of
interpreting it, so the judges of the International Court of Justice sometimes do a little more
than merely determine it. In addition to the Permanent Court and the International Court of
Justice, the phrase judicial decisions also encompasses international arbitral awards and the
rulings of national courts.
The decisions of municipal courts may provide evidence of the existence of a customary
rule. They may also constitute evidence of the actual practice of states which, while not a
description of the law as it has been held to apply, nevertheless affords examples of how states
actually behave, in other words the essence of the material act which is so necessary in
establishing a rule of customary law.
Writers
Historically, of course, the influence of academic writers on the development of
international law has been marked. Writers such as, Grotius, was the supreme authorities of
the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries and determined the scope, form and content of
international law. With the rise of positivism and the consequent emphasis upon state
sovereignty, treaties and custom assumed the dominant position in the exposition of the rules
of the international system, and the importance of legalistic writings began to decline. There
are still some writers who have had a formative impact upon the evolution of particular laws,
for example Gidel on the law of the sea, and others whose general works on international law
tend to be referred to virtually as classics, but the general influence of textbook writers has
somewhat declined. Academic writings also have a useful role to play in stimulating thought
about the values and aims of international law as well as pointing out the defects that exist
within the system, and making suggestions as to the future.
