Challenging International Criminal Tribunals Before Domestic Courts

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that in the field of international criminal law decisions of international courts and tribunals have recurrently been challenged before national courts. Since most international criminal courts and tribunals are either organs of international organizations, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) or the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), or enjoy the status of an international organization (International Criminal Court), putting their judgments into question amounts to challenging the acts of an international organization. It is against the backdrop of the obligation of States to cooperate with these international tribunals that national courts have often been called upon to address such challenges, mostly in the context of the transfer of a suspect. In these cases, they have faced a dilemma arising out of the need to secure the independent and efficacious functioning of the international tribunal while simultaneously safeguarding domestic fundamental rights.