Professor Akande briefs the ICC

At the beginning of June Professor Dapo Akande briefed the Assembly of States Parties to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on the crime of aggression. The briefing took place as part of on-going discussions by the ICC states parties with regard to conferring jurisdiction on the ICC to prosecute state leaders for aggressive uses of force by their state. In 2010 states parties to the ICC's Statute agreed to amend that treaty so as to allow the Court to exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression but also agreed to delay activation of that jurisdiction until 2017, at the earliest. Professor Akande was invited to address the states parties on how the Court's jurisdictional regime regarding the crime of aggression will work. 

Later in the month, Professor Akande was one of three academics invited by the International Criminal Court in the Hague to conduct an all-day information session for the Court on the crime of aggression. The session, which was attended by Judges of the Court, as well as staff from the Court's three branches (the Office of the Prosecutor, the Judicial Chambers and the Registry), was intended to assist the Court with preparation for the exercise of jurisdiction over the crime of aggression.