Immunities of Heads of State and State Officials for International Crimes

This project explores the issue of immunities of Heads of State and State officials for international crimes before international courts and international criminal tribunals and courts. My presentation begins with the Rome Statute provisions and the International Criminal Court’s case law on the issue; it then turns to the jurisprudence of the international criminal tribunals and specialised, internationalised, hybrid courts, in an attempt to provide a concise but as far as possible comprehensive analysis; it proceeds with an analysis under public international law and the International Court of Justice (hereinafter ‘ICJ’) case law. As the question of immunities is currently under review at the International Law Commission (hereinafter ‘ILC’), an analysis of the ILC Reports thus far is included. Finally, the project will address the question of how national courts and national law have dealt with Article 27 of the Rome Statute