Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy
Abstract
The crime of aggression, also known as the "supreme international crime," is the most controversial international crime. It is the only international crime that requires state participation, therefore making it a political crime. Moreover, illegal war often includes other international crimes, including terrorism, torture, genocide, and crimes against humanity, and it differs only in that "it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." Aggression was included in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998 without a definition. The Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court adopted a criminal definition of aggression at the ICC's first review conference in 2010. It remains unclear when, and under which conditions, the Court will have jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators of aggression. The controversy over prosecuting heads of states for aggression dates back to at least 1919 when the Allied and Associated Powers of the First World War established the first international war crimes commission to consider prosecuting Wilhelm the Second for committing the crime of aggression. Through the use of archives, this paper analyzes the debates within the 1919 war crimes commission when it considered the first attempt to prosecute the international crime of aggression.
Recommended Citation
Rhea, Harry M.
(2019)
"The First Attempt to Prosecute the Crime of Aggression,"
Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy: Vol. 28:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://ir.law.fsu.edu/jtlp/vol28/iss1/3