Jennifer Trahan

• New York University

This article explores the roles of the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly related to the 24 February 2022 invasion by Russian forces of the territory of Ukraine. It considers the Security Council’s paralysis, and suggests states make more use of the UN Charter language that requires obligatory abstention in voting of a “party to a dispute”...

The international community is too often focused on responding to the latest cyber-attack instead of addressing the reality of pervasive and persistent cyber conflict. From ransomware against the city government of Baltimore to state-sponsored campaigns targeting electrical grids in Ukraine and the U.S., we seem to have relatively little bandwidth...

This article examines the relationship of the veto power of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the requirement in the UN Charter that the Council act in accordance with the ‘Purposes and Principles’ of the UN. The article analyses whether the use of the veto (a negative vote cast by a permanent member) is subject to this requireme...

This article examines how a cyber-operation that has consequences similar to a kinetic or physical attack — causing serious loss of life or physical damage — could be encompassed within the crimes prosecuted before the International Criminal Court (ICC). It explains when and how such a cyber-operation could fall within the ambit of the ICC’s crimes...

This chapter focuses on two areas in the field of international criminal justice—loosely defined as the international criminal tribunals that prosecute core atrocity crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes). The chapter examines the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the recent creation of three mechanisms created...

Cambridge Core - UN and International Organisations - Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes - by Jennifer Trahan

Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes - by Jennifer Trahan August 2020

Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes - by Jennifer Trahan August 2020

Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes - by Jennifer Trahan August 2020

Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes - by Jennifer Trahan August 2020

Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes - by Jennifer Trahan August 2020

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has made significant contributions to justice, peace, and security, and creating an historical record about the violence that victimized hundreds of thousands of people during the 1990s. Yet, it has also given us a robust model for adjudicating large-scale atrocity crimes through...

Thank you for having me on this esteemed panel. My first two sets of comments are based on views articulated in my book, published by Cambridge University Press, Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes. The third set of comments responds to remarks by other panelists.

This article revisits the role of the United Nations (UN) Security Council in making referrals of the crime of aggression to the International Criminal Court (ICC). It examines the increase in significance of the role of the Security Council caused by the apparent jurisdictional limitations in the resolution activating the ICC’s jurisdiction over t...

The Legacy of Ad Hoc Tribunals in International Criminal Law - edited by Milena Sterio February 2019

The article focusses on the final negotiations this December during the Assembly of States Parties meeting, where states decided to activate the ICC's jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. The article commences with a brief background on prosecuting the crime, the negotiation of the definition and conditions for the exercise of ICC jurisdictio...

The icc's Libya cases raise interesting questions about the icc's interaction with national jurisdictions that retain the death penalty. In the case against Abdullah Al-Senussi, the icc ruled he could be tried in Libya - his case was 'inadmissible' - despite Libya retaining the death penalty and despite fair trial concerns. Yet, Rome Statute Articl...

Over the last decade and a half, there have been simultaneous developments related to (i) the law on humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect (R2P); and (ii) the International Criminal Court's definition of the crime of aggression. What is not immediately obvious from a facial reading of the definition of the crime of aggression...

In his article The Blank Prose Crime of Aggression, Michael Glennon argues that the International Criminal Court's newly adopted definition of the crime of aggression is so vague and overbroad that prosecutions under it would violate the prohibition on retroactive or ex post facto laws. His arguments rest on an incorrect construction of the definit...

This past June, in Kampala, Uganda, at the first Review Conference on the International Criminal Court, States Parties forged an historic agreement, amending the Rome Statute to define the crime of aggression, and agreeing on conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction. While the definition had been essentially agreed upon during years of earlier n...

In the “Anfal trial,” the Iraqi High Tribunal (“IHT”) in Baghdad convicted five former Iraqi high officials of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 1988 against the Iraqi Kurds. The evidence presented at trial—which included both voluminous documentary evidence as well as eye-witness testimony—demonstrated the clear existen...

Part I of this Article discusses historical precedent for the use of military commissions. Part II discusses President Bush's Military Order of November 13, 2001 (“Executive Order”) [FN14] as well as various procedural rules issued for the military commission trials. [FN15] Part III discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, w...

Traducción de: Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity: A Topical Digest of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Contiene: Resumen de las sentencias contra los acusados; Lista de casos incluidos; 1) Crímenes de guerra: graves infracciones a los convenios de Ginebra de 1949 (Artículo 2); 2) Crímenes...