CYIL 2015

421

THE CRIME OF AGGRESSION UNDER THE ROME STATUTE …

Carrie McDougall

The Crime of Aggression under the Rome Statute of the International

Criminal Court

[Zločin agrese v Římském statutu Mezinárodního trestního soudu]

2013: Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 411 p., Cambridge Studies

in International and Comparative Law

The crime of aggression was added within the jurisdiction of the International

Criminal Court (hereinafter referred to as the “ICC”) during the Rome conference

already in 1998; however the exercise of the jurisdiction was postponed till the crime

and conditions for exercise of the jurisdiction would be defined.

This occurred in

2010 in Ugandan Kampala when the Review Conference adopted Resolution RC/

Res. 6, on the definition of the crime of aggression (hereinafter referred to as the

“Resolution”).

Due to the still relatively short time since adoption of the Resolution, there have

not been many books written on the subject yet. One example is the book that I

have decided to write a review of. Its author, Carrie McDougall, has been a member

of the Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression as a representative of the

Australian government, which allowed her to gain a lot of interesting information

about the negotiations, and she provides this in her work.

The book was first published in 2015 as a hardback, this year as a paperback copy.

It is divided into 7 chapters, each dealing with a particular set of issues related to

crime. The first one introduces the topic and its historical evolution, while the main

focus lies within the negotiations between the Rome and Kampala conferences. The

second chapter discusses positive and negative arguments in favour of (or against)

criminalising aggression. The author reaches mainly positive answers to the answer of

whether aggression should be criminalised. Generally, I agree with her. The trouble

comes later.

Chapters 3 to 6 deal with the crime of aggression from different aspects. Unlike

the author of the book, I am not so optimistic as to the result of the negotiations; I

do not think that the compromise reached brings more positives than negatives to

criminalisation of aggression;, however, there is no doubt that Carrie McDougall has

presented an excellent analysis of the topic and has pointed out critical issues that

the ICC will need to deal with if jurisdiction over the crime of aggression ever will

be activated.

Article 5 (2) of the Rome Statute, 2187 UNTS 3, adopted on July 17, 1998, entered into force on

July 1, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as the „Rome Statute“).