International coalition agrees on the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine

In “coordination” with the Moscow celebration of the end of WWII, the European Commission declared the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.

This new Tribunal seems to be inspired by the NAZI Nuernberg Tribunal judging the German NAZI leadership after WWII.

Now this Special Tribunal is directed against the Russian leadership.

The establishment and basis of this new Special Tribunal is an agreement between the EU and Ukraine, the Lview Statute. It reminds the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, the International Criminal Court (of which neither Ukraine, nor Russia are members and therefore, out of the ICC’s jurisdiction).

That’s why a new Tribunal must be set up: for handling crimes of aggression against Ukraine.

The legal basis to define under the ICC Statute the crime of aggression and its activation is pretty new (2018). The crime of agression is a very new element of the international law. Of course, earlier aggressions cannot be prosecuted.

The new Tribunal is under Ukrainian jurisdiction, means the seat and applicable laws are Ukrainian. This means that Ukrainian national law and recognized International Laws are to be applied by this Ukrainian new Tribunal in all procedures.

It is therefore, not an international Tribunal, not established by the United Nation, just based an a bilateral agreement between the EU and Ukraine. The notion of “international” will be completed by assembling international judges and prosecutors who will have a reach within the EU. And the EU will pay for it.

As the new Tribunal is established on the basis of a bilateral agreement, it will need two parties to run it, Ukraine and the EU. It is directed solely against Russia.

Russia will have a further incentive to get to the source of it in Ukraine, to get rid off the agreement and the Tribunal. At least, it was a very bad timing, in the current peace process, to build up this new Tribunal to increase pressure on the Russian leadership.

The Russian reaction is still outstanding.