On 29 April 2017, the Nuremberg Academy hosted the event "The Birth of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor: Historicity, Model, Deterrence?". Four new books were launched, hard-cover copies of which were available for registered participants. The new books are:
- Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 5, edited by Morten Bergsmo, Klaus Rackwitz and SONG Tianying;
- Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Deterrent Effect of International Criminal Tribunals, Nuremberg Academy Series No. 1 (2017), edited by Linda Carter and Jennifer Schense;
- Abbreviated Criminal Procedures for Core International Crimes, edited by Morten Bergsmo; and
- Commentary on the Law of the International Criminal Court, edited by Mark Klamberg.
The speakers were:
- Mr. James Stewart, Deputy Prosecutor, International Criminal Court (formerly, senior prosecutor in Canada, at the ICTY and ICTR);
- Judge Hanne Sophie Greve, Gulating Court of Appeal, Norway (formerly, Judge, European Court of Human Rights; member, UN Security Council Commission of Experts for the Former Yugoslavia);
- Mr. Carlos Vasconcelos, Associate Federal Prosecutor-General, Brazil (formerly, Deputy Prosecutor, UN mission in East Timor; candidate, first ICC Prosecutor);
- Mr. Klaus Rackwitz, Director, International Nuremberg Principles Academy (formerly, Eurojust and ICC Office of the Prosecutor);
- Professor Morten Bergsmo, Peking University Law School, and Director, CILRAP (formerly, ICTY and ICC Offices of the Prosecutor);
- Ms. SONG Tianying, Editor, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (formerly, Legal Adviser, ICRC East Asia Delegation);
- Ms. Jennifer Schense, Founding Director, The House of Nuremberg and of Cat Kung Fu Productions; and
- Associate Professor Mark Klamberg, Stockholm University
- Judge Lennart Aspegren (formerly, Judge, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)
- Mr. Ralph Hecksteden (Head, Legal Informatics Section, CILRAP).
The comprehensive volume Historical Origins of International Criminal Law: Volume 5 concerns the birth of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor in 2002 and 2003, in particular the work of the preparatory team for the Office, of which Klaus Rackwitz, the Director of the Academy and co-editor of the volume, was a member. Forty-two chapters of previously unpublished materials – including an analysis by Professor Morten Bergsmo who co-ordinated the team and was the first Senior Legal Adviser of the Office – shed new light on the history and current state of the Office. The materials serve as a broadly-based resource for those who build capacity to investigate and prosecute core international crimes in other jurisdictions.
The first volume in the Nuremberg Academy Series – Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Deterrent Effect of International Criminal Tribunals – is on the possible deterrent effect of the ICC and other international criminal tribunals. It contributes towards a discussion in international criminal justice which is as essential as it has been in national criminal justice for decades. The Nuremberg Academy Series is a series of publications emanating from projects run by the Academy. On this occasion, the printed version of our first major publication was launched at the historic Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg.
Abbreviated Criminal Procedures for Core International Crimes is the first publication to discuss the possibility of abbreviated procedures in situations where many more case-files have been opened than a criminal justice system can possibly manage to process. Finally, the Commentary on the Law of the International Criminal Court is the book-version of the online CLICC service.
The programme was followed by a reception at 16:00. This is event was co-organised by the Academy and the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (CILRAP).
All photos © Nuremberg Academy/LÉROT
