BY ALFRED DE ZAYAS

Photograph Source: armyinform.com.ua – CC BY 4.0

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/27/war-crimes-in-ukraine-time-for-a-peoples-tribunal/

The idea of trying Putin for war crimes is “trending” in social media, and some politicians like Joe Biden[1],  German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier  [2] and even some professors of international law are already concocting possible scenarios.

Without a doubt, the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 entailed the crime of aggression for purposes of article 5 of the ICC statute and the 2010 Kampala definition of aggression. It would also fall within the scope of article 6(a) of the Nuremberg statute that defined the crime against peace.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has, of course, a problem of jurisdiction, since neither Russia nor Ukraine are parties to the Statute of Rome of 1998.

What should the answer of the international community be to the war crimes already committed – on both…