Dere Yasin
PhD Student, V.M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy
of Sciences of Ukraine, attorney at “Bazov Barristers & Partners”
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1351-5838
Gadimov Vugar Anar
PhD Student, Baku State University, attorney at “Presedent” Law Office
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7324-7050
UDC 341.49
ENFORCEMENT OF SENTENCES OF THE SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE CRIME OF
AGGRESSION AGAINST UKRAINE: INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FOUNDATIONS
The inevitability of punishment (nullum crimen sine poena) is a fundamental principle of international criminal law, without the realization of which the purpose of international justice collapses. The signing, on 25 June 2025, of the Agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe on the Establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (together with the annexed Statute) became a unique precedent in the doctrine of international justice, given that it was established for the investigation, prosecution, and trial of persons bearing the highest responsibility for the crime of aggression against Ukraine [1]. This international court is the first international judicial body since the Nuremberg and Tokyo military tribunals whose ratione materiae is confined exclusively to the “crime of aggression.” Its establishment is intended to address the limitation upon the exercise by the International Criminal Court of its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression in the situation concerning Ukraine, notwithstanding that this crime falls within the subject-matter jurisdiction of the ICC pursuant to Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute. In the words of the eminent jurist and Chief Prosecutor for Great Britain at the Nuremberg Tribunal, Hartley Shawcross KC: “All the peoples of the world ... strove to declare aggressive war a crime against international law, and although it was traditionally the practice to punish the state rather than individuals, it will be only logical and just, from a legal point of view ... to make the individuals who are personally responsible for unleashing such wars answer personally for leading their countries down such a path” [25, p. 155]. Thus, this court is vested with the key responsibility to stigmatize a modern war on the European continent.