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RESPONSE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW TO INTERNATIONAL CRIMES
The third part of the publication focuses on crimes of piracy and aggression. Due
to the recently increased activity of pirates in some parts of the world and the reaction
of the international community to it, the relevance of dealing with these definitions
and punishment for these acts on the international level has risen in importance. Jan
Ondřej thus opens a discussion: “Piracy as crime under international law?” Piracy is a
serious criminal offense. Actually, it is a criminal offense under general international
law. Many authors refer to the act of piracy as an international crime which is being
prosecuted by most of the states. But it seems that states do not show enough interest
in international proceedings, especially in comparison with international crimes
prosecuted by international criminal tribunals. Further development will show to
what extent states are interested in intensifying international cooperation on the fight
against piracy.
The remaining two contributions focus on the crime of aggression defined in
the so-called 2010 Kampala Resolution. The first one (Milan Lipovský) discusses
the procedural aspects of the definition (all the provisions other than the definition
in Article 8 bis), and the second (Carollam Braum) asks whether the provision of
weapons (the sale of small arms and light weapons or heavy artillery) to non-state
armed groups can be considered an act of aggression.
Although the adopted Kampala Resolution fulfilled the expectations of many, a
large part of the international community agreeing to the definition of the crime of
aggression, for some, however, the result might seems to be a failure, because of the
adoption of too many compromises that might rather complicate effective prosecution
of the crime of agression more. The future will show, after (if only) the ICC activates
adopted jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, whether the fears were false or
true. The second contribution also ends with the conclusion that: “considering the
complexity of the Kampala Resolution on aggression, set against the background of
the contentious history of aggression, there is really no way to predict exactly what
kind of situation will be its trigger”.
The fourth part of the monograph is comprised of two contributions, where one
studies the legal situation of the Palestinian territories and asks how to evaluate the
settlement of the occupied territories, as well as whether this activity can be described
as a crime under international law or international crimes (“Analysis of the settlement
of the occupied territories of Palestine” by Jitka Hanko); the second one focuses on
the case law of the European Court of Human Rights dealing with war crimes (“War
crimes in the case-law of the ECHR” by Alla Tymofeyeva)
Jitka Hanko states in her conclusions that it seems that the only significant
step in the recent past in this direction is the recognition of the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court by the Palestinian state, which might be a big hope as
pro futuro
for real examination of serious violations of the Geneva Conventions not
only by Israel but also Hamas members.