Universal Jurisdiction Project

In fall of 2012, the War Crimes Research Office initiated a project on universal jurisdiction over war crimes on behalf of the Department of State's Office of Global Criminal Justice. The starting point for the project was the October 2011 report of Amnesty International, entitled Universal Jurisdiction: a Preliminary Survey of Legislation Around the World. The 2011 AI Report identifies 133 states that provide universal jurisdiction over war crimes. The WCRO's work builds on this report by providing a more detailed description of the domestic legislation of 123 of those states, in particular by comparing the text of national provisions to the provisions of Article 8(2) of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, including whether the national provisions apply to international or non-international armed conflict or both.

Use the links to the right to access the project overview, the detailed war crimes chart, and the detailed universal jurisdiction chart.