CYIL Vol. 6, 2015

ALLA TYMOFEYEVA CYIL 6 ȍ2015Ȏ make a quick overview of the main points concerning crimes against peace in these documents. Principle VI of the Principles divides crimes against peace into two categories already discussed in section 3 of this paper. 54 According to Principle VII this type of crime was recognised as part of the notion of a crime under international law. 55 The ILC set forth that heads of states or representatives of a government may also be held responsible for an act which constitutes a crime under international law. 56 Moreover, a person is not relieved from responsibility under international law if he/she acted pursuant to an order of his/her superior. 57 With a view to Chapter IV of the IMT, entitled ‘Fair Trial For Defendants’, the ILC decided to include in the Principles a provision entailing the right of every person to a fair trial on the facts and law. 58 The first version of the Code was adopted by the ILC shortly after the Principles. Its preparation was given preliminary consideration by the Commission at its first session, in 1949. At that time the ILC appointed Mr. Spiropoulos as a special rapporteur on the subject. It was also decided that a questionnaire should be circulated to governments inquiring what offences, apart from those recognized in the Charter and Judgment, should be included in the draft code. 59 The version of 1954 employed the term “offences” instead of the current “crimes against peace”. The Code of 1996 added an article ‘the’ to the title of a crime in question and now sounds as the “crimes against the peace”. Moreover, the Code extended the title of this crime and the final notion is “ crime against the peace and security of mankind ”. A grammatical interpretation of Part II of the Code, namely in Articles 16 – 20, helps us to identify that this common notion entails a number of split crimes, which are 1) crime of aggression; 2) crime of genocide; 3) crimes against humanity; 4) crimes against United Nations and associated personnel; and 5) war crimes. The Code does not distinguish between the crimes against the peace and the crimes against security of mankind. Nevertheless, a comparison of the corpus delicti of the crimes in the IMT’s Charter and the Code allows us to conclude that the crime of aggression is an heir to the crimes against peace under the Nuremberg trial . Simultaneously with the work on the Code, the ILC was occupied with writing of the Draft Statute for an International Criminal Court, which was introduced to the

54 CASSESE, Antonio. Affirmation of the Principles of International Law Recognized by the Charter of the Nürnberg Tribunal. United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law, 2009. 55 Principles of International Law, cited above.

56 Principle III. 57 Principle IV. 58 Principle V. 59 Draft Code, 1954 with commentaries, cited above.

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