The International Court of Justice and the Concept of Aggression

Abstract

This paper reviews the contribution of the International Court of Justice in defining the concept of aggression against the background of the Kampala Amendments to the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It argues that the ICJ, while not contributing directly to the elaboration of the concept of aggression, has indeed influenced the internal gradation of the concept of aggression through drawing an implicit parallel with the concept of armed attack. The paper then completes this picture by introducing a three-step parallel gradation of concepts: use of force-armed attack-serious breach of jus cogens and use of force-act of aggression-war and/or crime of aggression; and by discussing their potential relationship and interaction.

Keywords: aggression, war of aggression, crime of aggression, use of force, armed attack, serious breach, peremptory norms of general international law, international court of justice, international criminal court, state responsibility, individual criminal responsibility