187 / 350
UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION UNDER CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL LAW …
UNIVERSAL JURISDICTION UNDER CUSTOMARY
INTERNATIONAL LAW, INTERNATIONAL
CONVENTIONS AND CRIMINAL LAW
OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC: COMMENTS
Pavel Caban
Abstract:
The aim of this article is to briefly point to the current contentious
issues within the debates on universal jurisdiction and to moderately defend its
exercise under restrictive conditions as currently described in the doctrine. The
opening sections part provide a very short overview of the concept of universal
jurisdiction and of the conditions for its exercise, namely the existence or non-
existence of the condition of the presence of the alleged perpetrator in the territory
of the state exercising universal jurisdiction, subsidiarity of universal jurisdiction, and
the observance of human rights standards and immunities under international law.
The next section highlights some relevant features of the jurisdictional and
aut dedere
aut iudicare
regime contained in the multilateral conventions aimed at prosecuting
serious crimes of international concern, including the interpretation provided
by the International Court of Justice in its judgment of 20 July 2012 in the case
of “Questions Concerning the Obligation to Prosecute or Extradite”. Subsequently,
the characteristic features of the “contractual universal jurisdiction” contained in the
relevant conventions are compared with the conditions for the exercise of universal
jurisdiction under customary international law (certain analogies between the
exercise of universal jurisdiction
in absentia
under customary universal jurisdiction
are highlighted on the one hand and, on the other hand, the entitlement of each
state party to the UN Convention against Torture and similar conventions to make
a claim towards the state where the alleged offender is present for the cessation of any
breach of the relevant obligations contained in the conventions, as interpreted by
the ICJ in the above mentioned decision). A theoretical possibility that the regimes
of customary and “contractual” universal jurisdiction might in the future converge,
and the possible role in this regard of the draft multilateral treaty on international
cooperation in criminal matters with respect to the crimes under international law
is mentioned. The final section is devoted to a short description of the salient aspects
of the regime of universal jurisdiction under Czech criminal law.
Resumé:
Účelem tohoto článku je stručně poukázat na současná sporná témata
v rámci diskusí o universální jurisdikci a pokusit se uměřeně obhájit uplatňování
universální jurisdikce za omezujících podmínek, jež jsou v současnosti prosazová-
ny v nauce mezinárodního práva. Úvodní části příspěvku obsahují velmi stručný
přehled režimu universální jurisdikce a podmínek pro její výkon, konkrétně uplat-
ňování universální jurisdikce
in absentia
, subsidiarní povahy universální jurisdikce
a zachovávání lidskoprávních standardů a imunit podle mezinárodního práva. Dal-