CLDG MT 24 - Week 7: International Crimes in English Criminal Law: Jurisdiction and Authority

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the reliance on the principle of 'universal jurisdiction' by States engaged in the prosecution and punishment of 'pure international crimes' before their domestic courts. The UK is not one of those States. There may be different reasons that help to explain the apparent reluctance of the English legal system to launch universal jurisdiction prosecutions. Some are practical and to do with the gathering of evidence and proof. However, other obstacles relate to how the substantive law is set out in the domestic legislation. Under English criminal law, a different jurisdictional regime applies to different international crimes. This paper maps the incoherence and suggests changes that should be made. This is necessary to reflect the specific nature of universal jurisdiction prosecutions where the domestic legal system is acting as a surrogate for the international community and where the authority of the law derives from customary international law.