The event will be in hybrid format, to obtain zoom-link, please email scilj@juridicum.su.se.
The Stockholm Centre for International Law and Justice invites you to a seminar with
From Vienna to Rome to Timbuktu: Using Systemic Integration to Interpret War Crimes at the International Criminal Court
Mohamed Badar
Description:
Please join Dr Matias Thomsen for a presentation on his upcoming publication on the role of judges in using customary international law to interpret the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Matias builds on his experiences working for the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, where he encountered several developing areas of IHL that were in need of judicial clarification, from the use of child soldiers, to the abuse of forcibly recruited members of an armed group, to the administration of justice in the non-state Islamic Tribunals in Timbuktu. In each of these examples, a central question arose: how should ICC judges approach new and developing issues of IHL within the Rome Statute? Analysis shows that different judges used different methods of interpretation, leading to inconsistency and methodological mayhem at the ICC. As a solution, Matias proposes that ICC judges should use the principle of systemic integration in the Vienna Convention to interpret war crimes consistently with customary international law.
Matias Thomsen is a Senior Legal Advisor at the Diakonia IHL Centre and a Lecturer in Criminal Law and Evidence at the University of Tasmania. Matias is currently working on a publication on the use of customary international law in the interpretation of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Matias’ research interests include IHL, international and domestic criminal law, and international human rights law. As Senior Legal Advisor, Matias is part of a team developing a legal framework and standards for monitoring compliance with IHL to improve humanitarian advocacy. (Brill).
Prof Mohamed Elewa Badar holds the Chair in Comparative and International Criminal Law & Islamic Law at Northumbria Law School, Newcastle, UK. He was the Legal Consultant of Mr Al Hassan Defence Team before the International Criminal Court (Dec 2021 – June 2023). He previously held a position as a Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Brunel Law School, London (2007-2013). Prof Badar served as Senior Prosecutor and Judge in Egypt from 1997-2006. He was a member (investigator) of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate and report on allegations of human rights violations during the civil unrest in Bahrain in February/March 2011 and has participated in the judicial reform in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He is the author of The Concept of Mens Rea in International Criminal Law (Oxford: Hart, 2013/2015) and the Islamist Militants and the Their Challenges to Sharia and International Criminal Law (Hart, 2025). He has published 60 articles in refereed journals and chapters in prominent books. His work has been cited and quoted by the international criminal tribunals and by distinguished scholars.
Registration by email (scilj@juridicum.su.se) 10th November at the latest.