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The prosecution strategy of the ICC office of the prosecutor recast : a hand up not a hand out

The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken steps to define and develop its prosecution policies. Review of these policies reveals that the OTP prefers to act on referrals of situations by states and the Security Council, rather than to employ its proprio motu investigatory powers. While the OTP has effectively defined the threshold for the gravity of the crimes that it will prosecute, a number of other discretionary criteria that inform the OTP's exercise of jurisdiction remain undefined. Additionally, the OTP's acceptance of state 'waivers of complementarity' moves in the direction of establishing a quasi-exclusive jurisdiction for the OTP. This thesis will critically evaluate these policies, and propose a recasting of the OTP's prosecution strategy towards the promotion of domestic war crimes prosecutions. It posits that the ICC OTP can act as a catalyst for domestic war crimes prosecutions, by serving in an advisory and support role. The OTP thus has the opportunity to breathe life into the complementarity regime and advance the global struggle against impunity.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.112608
Date January 2007
CreatorsReynolds, Diana Elizabeth.
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Laws (Institute of Comparative Law.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 002710994, proquestno: AAIMR51425, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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