This public lecture is now available as MP3:

Praised as the centrepiece of international justice or decried as a 'loose use of language,' the doctrine of universal jurisdiction remains contentious in modern international law. At its core, the doctrine provides that a state may exercise jurisdiction over conduct outside its territory where such conduct is universally dangerous to states and their nationals.

 

European states have paved the way in promoting the doctrine, with successful prosecutions in Spain, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Australia, by contrast, has had difficulty either prosecuting or extraditing suspected international criminals, despite the existence of a clear obligation to do so under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

 

This seminar brings together an eminent European scholar and prominent Australian practitioner to examine both the theoretical and practical aspects of universal jurisdiction, comparing the status of the doctrine in the two jurisdictions and considering its future as an operative principle of international and constitutional law.

The European Perspective
Dr. Jean d’Aspremont is Associate Professor of International Law and Senior Research Fellow of the Amsterdam Center for International Law at the University of Amsterdam. He is Guest Professor of International Humanitarian Law at the University of Louvain in Belgium, and acted as counsel in proceedings before the International Court of Justice.

 

The Australian Perspective
Mark Ierace SC is the Senior Public Defender at the NSW Public Defender’s Office, and an expert in International Criminal Law. He was Senior Trial Attorney at the UN Criminal Tribunal in the ICTY, leading the prosecution in the trial of General Galic and is a Visiting Fellow in International Criminal Law at UNSW.

 

RSVP to europe@anu.edu.au by Monday 29 March 2010 12.00pm 

 

To view the flyer for this event please see: Punishing Universally Dangerous Crimes – Universal Jurisdiction in Europe and Australia