The Application of Universal Jurisdiction in the Fight against Impunity

Abstract

Most international lawyers and liberal internationalists agree that universal jurisdiction exists, but everyone has a different understanding of what it means. Enormous amounts of time and resources have been expended over the last two decades by learned bodies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations to ‘study and clarify’ the principle of universal jurisdiction. Even more resources have been expended to put it into practice. Yet to this day, less than two dozen trials have been conducted on the basis of universal jurisdiction, all but one in Western Europe. Thus after twenty years of ‘fighting impunity’ for gross human rights violations through universal jurisdiction, the results are meagre at best and far from ‘universal’ in any meaningful sense. This study examines not only what went wrong and why, but also which role, if any, the European Union (EU) can play to improve the principle’s application amongst EU Member States and third countries.

Keywords: Universal Jurisdiction, Hollow Concept, Politicisation, NGOs, Retreat