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Adjudication of International Crime in the Netherlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

Roel van Rossum
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Extract

During the Second World War, the government of the Netherlands realized that it had no adequate penalization system in place for wartime offences. Thus, the Criminal Law Wartime Occupation Decree of 22 December 1943 (BBS, Stb. D 61) was enacted to penalize offences committed during wartime. This emergency legislation was recognized as legally valid after the war. It then took until the Wartime Offences Act of 10 July 1952 (effective date 5 August 1952, the “WOS”) for wartime offences to be subjected to specific penalties. This was followed by separate statutes penalizing genocide (Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 2 July 1964, effective date 24 October 1970) and torture (Torture Convention Implementation Act of 29 September 1988, effective date 20 January 1989).

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Legal Information , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , Summer 2011 , pp. 194 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by The Institute for International Legal Information 

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References

1 At the same time, on 22 December 1943, the Wartime Courts Decree (Stb. D 62) regulating the organization of courts, the Wartime Administration of Justice Decree (Stb. D 63) incorporating rules for criminal procedure and the Wartime Pardons Decree (Stb. D 64) were also adopted.Google Scholar

2 Stb. 1952, 408.Google Scholar

3 Stb. 1964, 243.Google Scholar

4 Stb. 1988, 478.Google Scholar

5 The Act of 8 April 1971 (Stb. 1971, 210) abolished the time limit for prosecuting criminal offences and the enforcement of penalties for war crimes and crimes against humanity.Google Scholar

6 Stb. 2003, 270.Google Scholar

7 Art. 27a BBS was inserted by Act of 26 July 1947. Stb. H 233.Google Scholar

8 Also known as national treason offences.Google Scholar

9 See the Instructions regarding the disposal of complaints in relation to penalization in the International Crime Act (instructions of 9 December 2003 from the Board of Procurators General to the heads of the offices of the procurators general).Google Scholar

10 Parliamentary Documents II, 2001-2002, 28 337, nos. 1-2, art. 15.Google Scholar

11 Parliamentary Documents II, 2002-2003, 28 337, no. 7, art. V.Google Scholar

12 See ss. 10-16 of the Administration of Military Criminal Justice Act for provisions regarding mobile courts.Google Scholar

13 See the Sanctions Act 1977 (Stb. 1980, 93) in conjunction with the Sanctions Regulations for Liberia 2001 (Stcrt. 19 July 2001, no. 137, p. 8) and the Sanctions Regulations for Liberia 2002 (Stcrt. 24 September 2002, no. 183, p. 8).Google Scholar

14 District Court 24 July 2007, Court of Appeal 17 December 2007, Supreme Court of the Netherlands 21 October 2008.Google Scholar

15 The universal jurisdiction in the Wim is not an absolute, but rather a secondary universal jurisdiction, since the Wim provides in Section 2, opening lines and (a), that non-Dutch suspects must have been found on Dutch territory. See also Parliamentary Documents II, 2001-2002, 28 337, no.3, p. 17, second paragraph.Google Scholar

16 See, inter alia, the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal in the Krstić case, no. IT-98-33-A, judgment on appeal of 19 April 2004 at [144] and the Rwanda Tribunal in the E. and G. Ntakirutiman cases, nos. ICTR-96-10-A. judgment on appeal of 13 December 2004, at [500] and [501].Google Scholar

17 29th Round Table on Current Problems of International Humanitarian Law, 7-9 September 2006 in San Remo, Italy, organized by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in collaboration with the International Red Cross.Google Scholar

18 A preliminary website has now been set up at www.haguejusticeportal.net under the DomCLIC project.Google Scholar

19 See the locations in the Appendix at the end of this article.Google Scholar

20 In this regard see also ss.3-6 of the Unlawful Acts (Conflict of Laws) Act, Stb. 2001, 190.Google Scholar