Under the Rome Statute, war crimes can be committed in international armed conflicts (IACs) and in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs). However, the lists granting the International Criminal Court (ICC) with jurisdiction over war crimes in each type of conflict are not the same.
Indeed, the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the following ten war crimes if they are committed in a NIAC: (1) directing attacks against civilian objects; (2) disproportionate attacks; (3) attacks against undefended places; (4) using human shields; (5) improper use of flags, emblems, and uniforms; (6) employing weapons or methods of warfare listed in an annex to the Statute; (7) using starvation as a method of warfare; (8) killing or wounding persons who are hors de combat; (9) depriving nationals of a hostile power of legal rights and action; (10) compelling nationals of a hostile power to participate in military operations.
The Research Brief Harmonizing War Crimes Under the Rome Statute discusses the need to harmonize the list of war crimes that can be committed in IACs with those that can be committed in NIACs. Written by Patrick S. Nagler – an alumnus of our LLM and a Research Assistant at the University of Geneva – it examines whether and the extent to which customary and/or conventional international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal jurisprudence provide a sound legal basis to do so.
