Universal Jurisdiction and the Crime of Aggression: the Challenges and Opportunities for JIT Member States

Since the establishment of the Joint Investigation Team on core international crimes in Ukraine, Member States (Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, and Romania) have been actively collecting and securing evidence of alleged conflict-related crimes committed since February 2022. Majority of the debates of potential cases arising of the JIT work constrain themselves to the possibilities of domestic investigations and prosecutions of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. However, the JIT might have a role to play in the investigation and prosecution of the crime of aggression as well, either on an international or domestic level, for instance through the use of the principle of universal jurisdiction.
 

This workshop invites academic scholars, legal practitioners and policy makers to share experiences, discuss legal frameworks and best practices related to universal jurisdiction prosecutions, and consider how to enable the JIT states to play a strong role in the enforcement of the crime of aggression provisions. The event will take place on Microsoft Teams on 4 December 2023 and is organised jointly by the Center for Research on International Criminal Law of the Institute of Law Studies (Polish Academy of Sciences) together with the Center for International Criminal Justice at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University.

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