Today there is a huge emphasis on the role of domestic courts in punishing international crimes.
There is a significant trend that speaks of success, especially in relation to German and other European prosecutions of Daesh and some Syrian government crimes. However, recent practice in states such as the UK, the US and Australia demonstrates that more attention to obstacles preventing domestic prosecution of international crimes is needed.
This panel will explore recent legislative and governmental measures affecting the prosecution of international crimes in the UK, US, and Australia, assessing their compatibility with international law.
Speakers
Chair: Dr Marco Longobardo, University of Westminster
Dr Marco Longobardo is a lecturer in international law at the University of Westminster, where he teaches public international law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and other related subjects.
He undertook his doctoral studies at the Sapienza University of Rome and previously lectured at the University of Messina and in the context of international humanitarian law courses for the personnel of the Italian armed forces.
He has published extensively on public international law issues and he is the author of The Use of Armed Force in Occupied Territory (Cambridge: CUP 2018). His publications have been cited by the UN International Law Commission and by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
Dr. Noelle Quénivet, UWE Bristol
Dr Noëlle Quénivet is an Associate Professor in International Law at the Bristol Law School of the University of the West of England (United Kingdom) where she has been working since 2006. Prior to that, she was a Researcher at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (Germany).
Her research focuses on international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and gender and children in armed conflict, and she has published extensively in these areas. Her most recent works include a book on the use of the defence of duress by child soldiers accused of war crimes and an article on the obligation of armed forces to investigate potential violations of Article 2 ECHR in an extra-territorial context.
Prof. Gabor Rona, Cardozo Law School
Prof. Gabor Rona (JD, LLM) worked in private practice from 1978-1995 and at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York from 1996-1998. He then served for six years as a Legal Adviser in the Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland, where he represented the ICRC in matters dealing with the establishment of the International Criminal Court and the ad hoc tribunals for former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. Gabor then served for 10 years as the International Legal Director of Human Rights First. From 2012-2018, Gabor was a member, and then Chair, of the UN Working Group on Mercenaries.
Gabor is now a Professor of Practice at Cardozo Law School where he also directs the Law and Armed Conflict Project of the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights. He is also a lecturer at Columbia Law School, a member of the Executive Committee of the International Law Association – American Branch, and President of the Board of Directors of the International Justice Resource Center.
Gabor has published extensively on the intersections of terrorism/counterterrorism, human rights and humanitarian law. He is presently suing the US government to overturn its sanctions against the International Criminal Court.
Dr. Alexandra Fowler, University of Westminster
Dr Alexandra Fowler joined the University of Westminster Law School in early 2020 as a Lecturer in Law. She has taught at the undergraduate and at the postgraduate level at various Australian universities in the fields of international law and constitutional/public law, among others.
Prior to her life in academia, she served in the Australian diplomatic service for over ten years during which she undertook postings in Thailand and in Jordan. She has advised the Hong Kong government on export controls on WMD/strategic materials, served on a peacekeeping mission in Bougainville PNG, and acted as an adviser on UN chemical weapons missions in Iraq.
Her research focuses on reparation for victims of armed conflict, international humanitarian and criminal law, transitional justice, and WMD control issues.
