Symposium on Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law
Book PFICL 1 | Book PFICL 2 | Book PFICL 3 | Conference programme, films and podcasts | Allott policy brief
Initially, this virtual symposium includes chapters of the first edition of three anthologies constituting the series Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law. The first volume – Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law: Correlating Thinkers (2018) – invites us to revisit some well-recognized political and other thinkers, exploring and correlating their main thoughts with the foundations of contemporary international criminal law. More than a mere history of ideas, such cross-fertilisation holds the promise of broadening the discourse and may offer fresh perspectives in an emerging sub-discipline of philosophy of international criminal law.
The second volume – Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law: Foundational Concepts (2019) – identifies and discusses some doctrinal building blocks that may be considered as foundational to the discipline of international criminal law. Not nearly exhaustive, the editors would like to expand the first two volumes with more thinkers and concepts, respectively, in future editions.
The third volume – Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law: Legally-Protected Interests (2022) – supplements the earlier correlational and doctrinal analyses with discussions of fundamental interests or values protected by international criminal law. It considers notions such as ‘community interest’, ‘legally-protected interest’ and ‘legal good’ in the context of international criminal law. The authors assess main interests currently protected by international criminal law (including ‘humanity’ and ‘international peace and security’), their characteristics and inter-relations. Chapters then zoom in on supplementary interests that should receive further recognition by international criminal law, among them ‘reconciliation’, ‘solidarity’ and ‘unity of humankind’. A growing sense of environmental and security threats to our survival invites us to afford the value of ‘unity of humankind’ a greater measure of affirmation also through international criminal law.
This is a discourse that should not be constrained to recognition of ecocide or other contenders as the next core international crime. Nor should the discussion be dominated by a small group of gatekeepers who may have participated in the making of the provisions in the Statute of the International Criminal Court on subject-matter jurisdiction. An inclusive, broad discourse is called for. It should not be limited to interests or values that could alone constitute the centre of a new international crime as such. And every stone should be turned to ensure that participants from outside the Western European and Other States Group (WEOG) can play a prominent role.
One of the motivations behind such a multi-year project has been the editors’ belief that theoretical approaches can sometimes create constructive common ground where actors from different, increasingly polarised, backgrounds can unite in a common concern to strengthen and develop further international criminal law, transcending rivalries and contestation between nation-state governments.
The contributions to this symposium are linked to below, together with films of project-conference presentations. The symposium is dynamic so further contributions are invited. Admitted texts will first be published either in TOAEP’s Policy Brief Series (shorter texts, between 3,900 and 4,400 words) or the Occasional Paper Series (in which case it may subsequently appear as a chapter in the next edition of the relevant project-anthology subject to a joint decision by the co-editors), and then be added to the online symposium.
The authors in the first edition of the three project-volumes were selected pursuant to a public call for papers and through the proceedings of a conference in New Delhi (25-26 August 2017), co-organized by the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (CILRAP), the Indian Law Institute, University of Delhi Campus Law Centre, the Indian Society of International Law, National Law University, Delhi, O.P. Jindal Global University, Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization, Peking University International Law Institute, Waseda University Law School, the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, the University of Nottingham, and the Institute for International Peace and Security Law, with funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Nuremberg Principles Academy.
Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law: Correlating Thinkers
- Table of Contents
- 'Foreword'
By Judge Madan B. Lokur
AV: Opening Remarks at Conference on Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law - 'Foreword'
By Gregory S. Gordon - 'Setting a Discourse Space: Correlational Analysis, Foundational Concepts, and Legally Protected Interests in International Criminal Law'
By Morten Bergsmo, Emiliano J. Buis and Nora Helene Bergsmo
AV: On Legally Protected Interests in International Criminal Law - 'Restraint over Revenge: Emotional Bias, Reformative Punishment, and Plato’s Contribution to Modern International Criminal Law'
By Emiliano J. Buis
AV: The Platonic Theory of Punishment and its Contribution to the Philosophical Development of International Criminal Law - 'Cicero: Bellum Iustum and the Enemy Criminal Law'
By Pedro López Barja de Quiroga
AV: The Ciceronian Foundations of Modern ‘Feindstrafrecht’ - 'Roman Jurists and the Idea of International Criminal Responsibility: Ulpian and the Cosmopolis'
By Kaius Tuori
AV: Roman Jurists and the Idea of International Criminal Responsibility: Ulpian and the ‘Cosmopolis’ - 'Inter Homines Esse: The Foundations of International Criminal Law and the Writings of Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas, Vitoria and Suárez'
By Hanne Sophie Greve
AV: The Foundations of International Criminal Law and the Writings of Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas, Vitoria and Suarez - 'Buddhist Philosophy and International Criminal Law: Towards a Buddhist Approach to Reckoning with Mass Atrocity'
By Tallyn Gray - 'Hugo Grotius on War, Punishment, and the Difference Sovereignty Makes'
By Pablo Kalmanovitz
AV: Hugo Grotius on Punishment, War, and the Difference Sovereignty Makes - 'Hobbes et la Cour pénale internationale : la fiction du contrat social global'
By Juan Paulo Branco Lopez
AV: Hobbes and the International Criminal Court: Towards a Global Social Contract? - 'An Analysis of Lockean Philosophy in the Historical and Modern Context of the Development of, and the Jurisdictional Restraints Imposed by, the ICC Statute'
By Daniel N. Clay
AV: An Analysis of Lockean Philosophy in the Historical and Modern Contexts of the Development of and the Jurisdictional Restraints Imposed by the Statute of the International Criminal Court - '“The friend of all nations”: Punishment and Universal Jurisdiction in Emer de Vattel’s Law of Nations'
By Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina
AV: Punishment and Universal Jurisdiction in Emer de Vattel’s Law of Nations - 'The Statute of the International Criminal Court as a Kantian Constitution'
By Alexander Heinze
AV: Kant, Cosmopolitan Law and the Rome Statute as a Constitution - 'Jeremy Bentham’s Legacy: A Vision of an International Law for the Greatest Happiness of All Nations'
By Gunnar M. Ekeløve-Slydal
AV: Jeremy Bentham’s Legacy: A Vision of an International Law for the Greatest Happiness of All Nations - 'Reconciliation v. Retribution, and Co-operation v. Substitution: Hegel’s Suggestions for a Philosophy of International Criminal Law'
By Sergio Dellavalle - 'Understanding the International Ius Puniendi under Durkheim’s Collective Conscience: An Anachronism or a Viable Path?'
By Carlos Augusto Canedo Gonçalves da Silva and Aléxia Alvim Machado Faria - 'Gandhism and International Criminal Law'
By Abraham Joseph
AV: Gandhism and International Criminal Law - 'Hans Kelsen and the Move to Compulsory Criminal Jurisdiction in International Law'
By Jochen von Bernstorff - 'Mens Rea, Intentionality and Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology'
By Jaroslav Větrovský
AV: Mens Rea, Behaviourism, and Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology - 'Genocide: The Choppy Journey to Codification'
By Mark A. Drumbl - 'Arendt on Prevention and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence'
By Djordje Djordjević
AV: Arendt on Prevention and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence - 'Transnational Governmentality Networking: A Neo-Foucauldian Account of International Criminal Law'
By Gregory S. Gordon
AV: Transnational Governmentality Networking: A Neo-Foucauldian Account of International Criminal Law
Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law: Foundational Concepts
- Table of Contents
- 'From Open Normativity to Normative Openness: Addressing the Elephant in the Room, That Is, the Fact of Justificatory Pluralism in International Criminal Justice'
By Christoph Burchard
AV: Normative Openness: Coming to Terms with Normative Pluralism and Fragmentation in International Criminal Justice - 'The Prince and the People: Sovereignty in International Criminal Law’s Philosophical Foundations'
By Christopher B. Mahony
AV: Sovereignty in International Criminal Law’s Philosophical Foundations - 'Towards ‘Global’ Criminal Justice?'
By Milinda Banerjee
AV: Towards Global Criminal Justice? - 'The Concept of International Criminal Responsibility for Individuals and the Foundational Transformation of International Law'
By CHAO Yi
AV: The Concept of International Criminal Responsibility for Individuals and the Foundational Transformation of International Law - 'International Criminal Responsibility as a Founding Principle of International Criminal Law'
By Javier Dondé-Matute
AV: International Criminal Responsibility as a Foundational Principle of International Criminal Law - 'Justifying International Criminal Punishment: A Critical Perspective'
By Barrie Sander
AV: A Critical Account of Justificatory Theories of Punishment in the International Criminal Context - 'Impunity: A Philosophical Analysis'
By Max Pensky
AV: Impunity: A Philosophical Analysis - 'Truth, Testimony, and Epistemic Injustice in International Criminal Law'
By Shannon E. Fyfe
AV: Truth, Testimony and Epistemic Injustice in International Criminal Law
Philosophical Foundations of International Criminal Law: Legally-Protected Interests
- Table of Contents
- 'Preface by the Editors'
By Morten Bergsmo, Emiliano J. Buis and SONG Tianying - 'Protected Interests in International Criminal Law'
By Morten Bergsmo, Emiliano J. Buis and SONG Tianying - 'The Legal Interests Protected by War Crimes'
By SONG Tianying
AV: Legal Goods Protected by War Crimes - 'The Legal Good of ‘Humanity’ Protected by Crimes Against Humanity'
By Susan R. Lamb
AV: The Legal Good of ‘Humanity’ Protected by Crimes Against Humanity - 'Legal Goods in International Criminal Law'
By Ioanna N. Anastasopoulou
AV: Collective Rechtsgüter and International Criminal Law - '‘Reconciliation’ as a Philosophical Foundational Concept in International Criminal Law'
By David Baragwanath
AV: ‘Reconciliation’ as a Philosophical Foundational Concept in International Criminal Law - 'On ‘Unity’ as an Emerging Legal Interest in International Criminal Law'
By Salim A. Nakhjavani and Melody Mirzaagha
AV: On ‘Unity’ as an Emerging Legal Good in International Criminal Law - 'Forging a Modern African Perspective on ‘Unity’ as a Collective Legal Interest in International Criminal Law'
By Kafayat Motilewa Quadri, Vahyala Kwaga and Tosin Osasona
AV: Communitarianism and ‘Unity’: Forging a Modern African Perspective on ‘Unity’ as a Collective Legal Good in International Criminal Law - 'Humanity and Unity: Indian Thought and Legal Interests Protected by International Criminal Law'
By Surabhi Sharma
AV: ‘Humanity’ and ‘Unity’: Indian Thought and Collective Legal Goods Protected by International Criminal Law - 'Unity and Disunity in International Criminal Justice'
By Rod Rastan