Publication details
Relationship between Crimes Under International Law and Immunitites: Coexistence or Exclusion?
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | This paper illustrates the collision of two divergent interests in contemporary international law: the growing need for international accountability for crimes under international law and a system of immunities deriving its origins, as most often claimed, from the principle of sovereign equality of States. The principle of individual criminal responsibility for crimes under international law is firmly established. However, the enforcement of this principle can, in some circumstances, be frustrated by operation of another well established principle, immunity of a Head of State. The central issue of this paper is to examine which of these two interests will prevail in the Taylor case. The issue is whether Charles Taylor as a president of Liberia at the time of issuance of the indictment was entitled to claim immunity before the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in the light of the fact that the SCSL had been established by a bilateral treaty between the United Nations and Sierra Leone, to which Liberia was not a party. |