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Contents

LIST OF ABBREVATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JURISDICTION, INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE DEFINITION OF WAR CRIMES; INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS ON REPRESSION OF GRAVE BREACHES AND WAR CRIMES
2.1. Evolution of international criminal jurisdiction
2.2. Evolution of individual criminal responsibility and development of war crimes in international law
2.2.1. Development of war crimes in international law
2.2.2. Individual responsibility versus collective responsibility?
2.3. Overview of international obligations to repress war crimes
2.4. Development of the concept of universal jurisdiction with respect to grave breaches
2.5. Law as a weapon
2.6. A parallel example of extraterritorial jurisdiction: the US Alian Tort Statute

3. LEGAL PROBLEMS AROUND THE APPLICATION OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW
3.1. Problems inbuilt in international law
3.1.1. Sovereignty and penalization
3.1.2. Effects of international law on national lawmaking and national jurisprudence: the ICC complementarity principle
3.1.3. Problems of direct applicability of international law
3.1.4. Specific problems related to universal jurisdiction
3.2. Hurdles inbuilt in national law
3.2.1. Implementation: a conflict with the legality principle?
3.2.2. Consequences of basing the case directly on the international treaty - direct application
3.2.3. Consequences of basing the case on ordinary crimes
3.2.4. Are there any controversies if national law punishes acts that are not war crimes?
3.2.5. Place of the norm in the hierarchy of national laws
3.2.6. Could the application of universal jurisdiction be contrary to the principle of legality?
3.3. Hurdles inbuilt in national jurisprudence / national application
3.3.1. Are domestic courts ready to try war crimes cases?
3.3.2. Domestic courts' attitude towards universal jurisdiction

4. POSSIBLE WAYS OF OVERCOMING THE HURDLES
4.1. On the level of international jurisprudence: effects of jurisprudence of international tribunals on domestic war crimes procedures
4.1.1. Substantive criminal law aspects
4.1.2. Criminal procedural law aspects
4.1.3. Effects of the functioning of international tribunals on national justice systems
4.2. On the level of internal legislation
4.2.1. The importance of effective implementation techniques
4.2.2. Specific aspects of implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
4.2.3. Common characteristics of national legislation on universal jurisdiction in Central Europe
4.2.4. Criminalization techniques in Central Europe
4.3. On the level of internal jurisprudence
4.3.1. When domestic courts are trying to solve the problem
4.3.2. War crimes units
4.3.3. Recommendations for Hungary
4.3.4. Role of the judiciary in exercising universal jurisdiction
4.3.5. National case law on universal jurisdiction

5. CONCLUSIONS

ANNEX: LEGISLATION RELATED TO THE PROSECUTION OF WAR CRIMES IN SELECTED CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Blurb

Réka Varga is senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the Pázmány Catholic University, Budapest, since 2009. Between 2001 and 2009 she was legal adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Regional Delegation for Central Europe, based in Budapest. Her work included providing legal advice on the domestic implementation of international humanitarian law treaties; in this capacity she commented on a number of draft legislation in Central European countries. From 2009 she has been acting as international law adviser to the Hungarian Red Cross. She has given numerous lectures in the framework of international humanitarian law courses and military trainings; she was regularly invited in her capacity of legal expert to the pre-deployment trainings of Hungarian forces travelling to Afghanistan. Réka Varga studied law at ELTE University Budapest - where she received her law degree - and at Regensburg University.

The present book discusses the different questions arising in the framework of the domestic repression of war crimes, both during the implementation phase as well as its application: the war crimes procedures. Besides discussing legal questions, primarily from the perspective of criminal justice guarantees and their possible conflict with the repression of war crimes, the book also deals with practical questions that may emerge as obstacles during domestic war crime trials.

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