Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention: A Crime of Aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court?

Abstract

The Article addresses how international law has developed with respect to humanitarian interventions and discusses the importance of the activation of jurisdiction over the crime of aggression by the International Criminal Court as well as their interrelationship. The overarching question posed in the Article will be: Does any humanitarian intervention, planned, organized, and carried out by State leaders constitute a crime of aggression under the Rome Statute? What types of use of force are prohibited and what types are legal? Despite the problems associated with the exercise of jurisdiction, the International Criminal Court will have to clarify sooner or later the scope of Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute on “acts of aggression”. In conclusion, the Article will try to answer the question of the potential consequences of the activation of the ICC jurisdiction on the doctrine of humanitarian interventions and jus ad bellum in general.