International Criminal Law

International criminal law (ICL) refers to principles and rules of international law for the prevention and repression of international crimes. It is a relatively new branch of international law, which owes its very foundation to the emergence of the principle of individual criminal responsibility in international law. Under classical international law, with States as the main international actors, individuals could not be held accountable, in the same way as they could not claim international rights. The origin of the principle of individual criminal responsibility lies in the idea that in addition to States, individuals may be held responsible for serious violations of international law. This implies that certain international obligations (the prohibition of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, aggressionaggression, and others) are not only addressed to States, but also to individuals. ICL emerged rapidly in the aftermath of WWII and underwent tremendous developments during the post-1990 years to become a body of international law which plays an important role in upholding fundamental values shared by the international community.