j u r i s d i c t i o n
671
The International Law Commission adopted a Draft Code of Crimes
against the Peace and Security of Mankind in 1996.
116
Article 8 provides
that each state party shall take such measures as may be necessary to estab-
lish its jurisdiction over the crimes laid down in the Draft, while article 9
provides that a state in whose territory an individual alleged to have com-
mitted a crime against the peace and security of mankind is present shall
either extradite or prosecute that individual. The Commentary to this
article declares that the national courts of states parties would be entitled
to exercise the ‘broadest possible jurisdiction’ over the crimes ‘under the
principle of universal jurisdiction’.
117
The Crimes against the Peace and Se-
curity of Mankind, for which there is individual responsibility, comprise
aggression (article 16);
118
genocide (article 17); crimes against humanity
(article 18); crimes against UN and associated personnel (article 19); and
war crimes (article 20).
119
The fact that a particular activity may be seen as an international crime
does not of itself establish universal jurisdiction and state practice does not
appear to have moved beyond war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes
against humanity in terms of permitting the exercise of such jurisdiction.
In particular, references made to, for example, apartheid, mercenaries and
environmental offences in the 1991 Draft but omitted in the Draft Code
adopted in 1996 must be taken as
de lege ferenda
.
In so far as universal jurisdiction as manifested in domestic courts
is concerned, the starting point is the
Eichmann
case
120
decided by the
District Court of Jerusalem and the Supreme Court of Israel in 1961.
Eichmann was prosecuted and convicted under an Israeli law of 1951 for
116
Report of the International Law Commission, A/51/10, 1996, p. 9. This had been under
consideration since 1982: see General Assembly resolution 36/106 of 10 December 1981. A
Draft Code was formulated in 1954 by the ILC and submitted to the UN General Assembly:
see
Yearbook of the ILC
, 1954, vol. II, p. 150. The General Assembly postponed consid-
eration of it until a definition of aggression had been formulated, resolution 897 (IX).
This was achieved in 1974: see resolution 3314 (XXIX). A Draft Code was provisionally
adopted in 1991: see A/46/10 and 30 ILM, 1991, p. 1584.
117
Report of the International Law Commission, A/51/10, 1996, p. 51. This does not apply
to the crime of aggression.
118
Article 8 provides that jurisdiction concerning individuals will rest with an international
criminal court.
119
Additional crimes referred to in the 1991 Draft also included recruitment, use, financing
and training of mercenaries; international terrorism; illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and
wilful and severe damage to the environment.
120
36 ILR, pp. 5 and 277. See also the
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